Critical Comparison: Origin Bancorp (NASDAQ:OBK) & Customers Bancorp (NYSE:CUBI)

Origin Bancorp (NASDAQ:OBK) and Customers Bancorp (NYSE:CUBI) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership, earnings and valuation.

Risk & Volatility

Origin Bancorp has a beta of 1, meaning that its stock price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.Comparatively, Customers Bancorp has a beta of 1.62, meaning that its stock price is 62% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Origin Bancorp and Customers Bancorp’s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Origin Bancorp	$355.67 million	2.84	$83.80 million	$2.65	12.28
Customers Bancorp	$773.85 million	2.01	$250.14 million	$7.16	6.91

Customers Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than Origin Bancorp. Customers 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.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Origin Bancorp	13.18%	7.94%	0.86%
Customers Bancorp	17.38%	17.09%	1.22%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

54.7% of Origin Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.3% of Customers Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 6.2% of Origin Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 6.9% of Customers Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Origin Bancorp and Customers Bancorp, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Origin Bancorp	0	1	4	0	2.80
Customers Bancorp	0	2	5	1	2.88

Origin Bancorp presently has a consensus target price of $36.00, indicating a potential upside of 10.63%. Customers Bancorp has a consensus target price of $65.50, indicating a potential upside of 32.48%. Given Customers Bancorp’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Customers Bancorp is more favorable than Origin Bancorp.

Summary

Customers Bancorp beats Origin Bancorp on 13 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Origin Bancorp

Origin Bancorp, Inc. operates as a bank holding company for Origin Bank that provides banking and financial services to small and medium-sized businesses, municipalities, and retail clients in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. It offers noninterest and interest-bearing checking accounts, savings deposits, money market accounts, and time deposits; and offers commercial real estate, construction and land development, consumer, residential real estate, commercial and industrial, mortgage warehouse, and residential mortgage loans. The company also offers personal and commercial property, and casualty insurance products; and Internet banking and voice response information, mobile applications, cash management, overdraft protection, direct deposit, safe deposit boxes, U.S. savings bonds, and automatic account transfer services; and mobile and online banking, treasury management, mortgage origination and servicing facilities, peer-to-peer electronic pay solutions, and personal financial management solutions. The company was founded in 1912 and is headquartered in Ruston, Louisiana.

About Customers Bancorp

Customers Bancorp, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Customers Bank that provides financial products and services to individual consumers, and small and middle market businesses. The company provides deposit banking products, which includes commercial and consumer checking, non-interest-bearing and interest-bearing demand, MMDA, savings, and time deposit accounts. Its lending business offers commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, and multifamily and residential mortgage loans; SBA lending and financing; specialty lending includes fund finance, real estate specialty finance, technology and venture, and healthcare and financial institutions group; commercial loans to mortgage companies, and commercial equipment financing; and fund finance, such as variable rate loans secured by collateral pools to private debt funds; and cash management services. In addition, the company provides digital banking including Banking-as-a-Service to fintech companies, payments and treasury services to businesses, and consumer loans through fintech companies and the TassatPay, a blockchain-based instant B2B payments platform which offers instant payments including over-the-counter desks, exchanges, liquidity providers, market makers, funds, and other B2B verticals. Further, it offers mobile phone and internet banking, wire transfers, electronic bill payment, lock box, remote deposit capture, courier, merchant processing, cash vault, controlled disbursements, positive pay, and cash management services, such as account reconciliation, collections, and sweep accounts. The company was incorporated in 2010 and is headquartered in West Reading, Pennsylvania.