Head-To-Head Review: Bay National (OTCMKTS:BAYN) and Stellarone (NYSE:STEL)

Bay National (OTCMKTS:BAYN) and Stellarone (NYSE:STEL) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, risk, dividends, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

54.2% of Stellarone shares are held by institutional investors. 17.8% of Bay National shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 9.3% of Stellarone shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for Bay National and Stellarone, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Bay National	0	0	0	0	0.00
Stellarone	0	2	2	0	2.50

Stellarone has a consensus target price of $37.00, suggesting a potential downside of 0.66%. Given Stellarone’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Stellarone is more favorable than Bay National.

Profitability

This table compares Bay National and Stellarone’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Bay National	N/A	N/A	N/A
Stellarone	17.25%	6.30%	0.97%

Volatility and Risk

Bay National has a beta of 1.56, meaning that its share price is 56% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Stellarone has a beta of 0.75, meaning that its share price is 25% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Bay National and Stellarone”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Bay National	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Stellarone	$596.26 million	3.17	$102.87 million	$1.98	18.81

Stellarone has higher revenue and earnings than Bay National.

Summary

Stellarone beats Bay National on 8 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Bay National

Bay National Corp. operates as a bank holding company. It offers loans, deposits, investments and other banking and financial services through its subsidiary, Bay National Bank. The company was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Lutherville, MD.

About Stellarone

StellarOne Corporation is a bank holding company of StellarOne Bank (the Bank). The Bank is an independent commercial bank holding company. It offers services provided by full-service banks, including individual and commercial demand and time deposit accounts, commercial and consumer loans, residential mortgages, credit card services and deposit services. The Bank, through its commercial banking segment, offers Internet banking access for banking services, mobile banking and online bill payment for both consumers and commercial customers. Lending is focused on individuals and small to middle-market businesses in the local markets of the Bank. The Bank, through its wealth management segment, provides a variety of wealth management and personal trust services. The mortgage banking segment engages primarily in the origination and acquisition of residential mortgages for sale into the secondary market. In January 2014, Union First Market Bankshares Corp acquired StellarOne Corporation.