Head to Head Comparison: SVB Financial Group (NASDAQ:SIVBQ) versus Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST)

Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST – Get Rating) and SVB Financial Group (NASDAQ:SIVBQ – Get Rating) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, valuation and earnings.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

30.4% of Business First Bancshares shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.4% of SVB Financial Group shares are held by institutional investors. 7.0% of Business First Bancshares shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of SVB Financial Group shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Business First Bancshares and SVB Financial Group, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Business First Bancshares	0	1	2	0	2.67
SVB Financial Group	0	0	0	0	N/A

Business First Bancshares currently has a consensus target price of $25.67, suggesting a potential upside of 69.53%. Given Business First Bancshares’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Business First Bancshares is more favorable than SVB Financial Group.

Volatility and Risk

Business First Bancshares has a beta of 0.78, indicating that its stock price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SVB Financial Group has a beta of 1.4, indicating that its stock price is 40% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Business First Bancshares and SVB Financial Group’s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Business First Bancshares	$265.42 million	1.44	$54.26 million	$2.43	6.23
SVB Financial Group	$7.40 billion	0.00	$1.67 billion	$25.35	0.02

SVB Financial Group has higher revenue and earnings than Business First Bancshares. SVB Financial Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Business First Bancshares, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Business First Bancshares and SVB Financial Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Business First Bancshares	19.96%	13.32%	1.08%
SVB Financial Group	22.05%	13.02%	0.76%

Summary

Business First Bancshares beats SVB Financial Group on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Business First Bancshares

(Get Rating)

Business First Bancshares, Inc. is a financial holding company, which engages in the provision of banking products and services through its subsidiary. It also offers commercial and personal banking, treasury management, and wealth solutions services. The company was founded on July 20, 2006 and is headquartered in Baton Rouge, LA.

About SVB Financial Group

(Get Rating)

SVB Financial Group is a holding company, which engages in the provision of banking and financial services to clients primarily in the technology and life science/healthcare industries, as well as global private equity and venture capital clients. It operates through the following segments: Silicon Valley Bank, SVB Private, SVB Capital, and SVB Securities. The Silicon Valley Bank is a commercial bank, which offers products and services provided by the bank and its subsidiaries to commercial clients in key innovation markets. Silicon Valley Bank provides solutions to the financial needs of commercial clients through credit, treasury management, foreign exchange, trade finance, and other services. The SVB Private segment is the private bank and wealth management segment of the bank. It provides a range of personal financial solutions for consumers, and offers a customized suite of private banking services, including mortgages, home equity lines of credit, restricted and private stock loans, capital call lines of credit, other secured and unsecured lending products, and vineyard development loans, as well as planning-based financial strategies, wealth management, family offices, finan