Reviewing Oak Valley Bancorp (NASDAQ:OVLY) and Origin Bancorp (NASDAQ:OBNK)

Dividends

Origin Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. Oak Valley Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.45 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Origin Bancorp pays out 18.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Oak Valley Bancorp pays out 14.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Origin Bancorp has increased its dividend for 4 consecutive years and Oak Valley Bancorp has increased its dividend for 11 consecutive years. Oak Valley Bancorp is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Risk & Volatility

Origin Bancorp has a beta of 0.89, meaning that its share price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Oak Valley Bancorp has a beta of 0.35, meaning that its share price is 65% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

47.2% of Origin Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 30.9% of Oak Valley Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 6.2% of Origin Bancorp shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 19.3% of Oak Valley Bancorp shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Origin Bancorp and Oak Valley Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Origin Bancorp	20.47%	10.45%	0.97%
Oak Valley Bancorp	28.03%	14.28%	1.35%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Origin Bancorp and Oak Valley Bancorp”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Origin Bancorp	$347.14 million	3.36	$87.71 million	$3.21	11.81
Oak Valley Bancorp	$87.30 million	2.48	$30.85 million	$3.02	8.57

Origin Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than Oak Valley Bancorp. Oak Valley Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Origin Bancorp, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

About Origin Bancorp

Origin Bancorp, Inc. is a bank holding company, which engages in the provision of financial services to small and medium-sized businesses, municipalities, high net worth individuals, and retail clients. The firm’s products and services include lending, deposits, mortgage banking, and insurance. It also offers other banking services such as Internet banking and voice response information, mobile applications, cash management, overdraft protection, direct deposit, safe deposit boxes, U.S. savings bonds, and automatic account transfers. The company was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Ruston, LA.

About Oak Valley Bancorp

Oak Valley Bancorp operates as the bank holding company for Oak Valley Community Bank that provides a range of commercial banking services to individuals and small to medium-sized businesses in the Central Valley and the Eastern Sierras. The company's deposits products include checking and savings, money market, health savings, and individual retirement accounts, as well as certificates of deposit. It also offers commercial real estate loans, commercial business lending and trade finance, and small business administration lending, as well as consumer loans, including automobile loans, home mortgages, credit lines, and other personal loans. In addition, the company provides online and mobile banking, remote deposit capture, merchant, night depository, extended hours, wire transfer of funds, note collection services, and automated teller machines. The company was incorporated in 1990 and is headquartered in Oakdale, California.