Critical Contrast: Glacier Bancorp (NASDAQ:GBCI) and BayFirst Financial (NASDAQ:BAFN)

Glacier Bancorp (NASDAQ:GBCI) and BayFirst Financial (NASDAQ:BAFN) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

80.2% of Glacier Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 16.9% of BayFirst Financial shares are held by institutional investors. 0.4% of Glacier Bancorp shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 19.2% of BayFirst Financial shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Glacier Bancorp and BayFirst Financial”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Glacier Bancorp	$767.83 million	6.83	$222.93 million	$1.75	26.42
BayFirst Financial	$82.10 million	0.67	$5.70 million	$1.13	11.81

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

Profitability

This table compares Glacier Bancorp and BayFirst Financial’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Glacier Bancorp	15.15%	6.06%	0.66%
BayFirst Financial	4.01%	6.38%	0.47%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Glacier Bancorp and BayFirst Financial, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Glacier Bancorp	0	3	2	0	2.40
BayFirst Financial	0	0	0	0	N/A

Glacier Bancorp presently has a consensus price target of $43.80, suggesting a potential downside of 5.28%. Given Glacier Bancorp’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Glacier Bancorp is more favorable than BayFirst Financial.

Dividends

Glacier Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. BayFirst Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. Glacier Bancorp pays out 75.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. BayFirst Financial pays out 28.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Risk and Volatility

Glacier Bancorp has a beta of 0.8, indicating that its share price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, BayFirst Financial has a beta of 0.44, indicating that its share price is 56% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Glacier Bancorp beats BayFirst Financial on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Glacier Bancorp

Glacier Bancorp, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Glacier Bank that provides commercial banking services to individuals, small to medium-sized businesses, community organizations, and public entities in the United States. The company offers retail banking, business banking, and mortgage origination and loan servicing services. It also provides non-interest bearing deposit and interest bearing deposit accounts, such as negotiable order of withdrawal and demand deposit accounts, savings, money market deposits, fixed rate certificates of deposit, negotiated-rate jumbo certificates, and individual retirement accounts. In addition, the company offers construction and permanent loans on residential real estate; consumer land or lot loans; unimproved land and land development loans; and residential builder guidance lines comprising pre-sold and spec-home construction, and lot acquisition loans. Further, it provides commercial real estate loans to purchase, construct, and finance commercial real estate properties; consumer loans secured by real estate, automobiles, or other assets; home equity loans consisting of junior lien mortgages, and first and junior lien lines of credit secured by owner-occupied 1-4 family residences; and agriculture loans. Glacier Bancorp, Inc. was founded in 1955 and is headquartered in Kalispell, Montana.

About BayFirst Financial

BayFirst Financial Corp. operates as the bank holding company for BayFirst National Bank that provides community banking services for businesses and individuals. The company offers checking, savings, NOW, and money market deposit accounts, as well as certificates of deposit and individual retirement account; and safety deposit boxes. It also provides commercial real estate mortgages; construction and development, working capital, and business loans; auto, boat, and recreational vehicle loans; and residential mortgages, personal lines of credit, and home equity lines of credit. In addition, the company offers mobile and online banking, treasury management, wire transfers, cash management, merchant processing, remote deposit capture, night depositor, online bill payment, courier, retail investment, ACH originations, and other services. It operates full-service banking centers in St. Petersburg, Seminole, Pinellas Park, Clearwater, Sarasota, Tampa, Belleair Bluffs, and Bradenton, Florida. The company was formerly known as First Home Bancorp, Inc. and changed its name to BayFirst Financial Corp. in May 2021. BayFirst Financial Corp. was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida.