Pacific Valley Bancorp (OTCMKTS:PVBK) and Pinnacle Financial Partners (NASDAQ:PNFP) Critical Comparison

Pinnacle Financial Partners (NASDAQ:PNFP) and Pacific Valley Bancorp (OTCMKTS:PVBK) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends and risk.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

87.4% of Pinnacle Financial Partners shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 2.8% of Pacific Valley Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.9% of Pinnacle Financial Partners shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Pinnacle Financial Partners and Pacific Valley Bancorp, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Pinnacle Financial Partners	0	6	4	0	2.40
Pacific Valley Bancorp	0	0	0	0	0.00

Pinnacle Financial Partners presently has a consensus price target of $108.70, suggesting a potential downside of 16.30%. Given Pinnacle Financial Partners’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Pinnacle Financial Partners is more favorable than Pacific Valley Bancorp.

Risk and Volatility

Pinnacle Financial Partners has a beta of 1.04, indicating that its share price is 4% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Pacific Valley Bancorp has a beta of 0.35, indicating that its share price is 65% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Pinnacle Financial Partners and Pacific Valley Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Pinnacle Financial Partners	13.97%	8.89%	1.07%
Pacific Valley Bancorp	15.07%	N/A	N/A

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Pinnacle Financial Partners and Pacific Valley Bancorp”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Pinnacle Financial Partners	$2.79 billion	3.60	$562.15 million	$5.26	24.69
Pacific Valley Bancorp	$27.51 million	1.65	$4.85 million	$0.92	10.09

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

Summary

Pinnacle Financial Partners beats Pacific Valley Bancorp on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Pinnacle Financial Partners

Pinnacle Financial Partners, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as the bank holding company for Pinnacle Bank that provides various banking products and services to individuals, businesses, and professional entities in the United States. The company accepts various deposits, including savings, noninterest-bearing and interest-bearing checking, money market, and certificate of deposit accounts; and provides treasury management services, which includes online wire origination, enhanced ACH origination services, positive pay, zero balance and sweep accounts, automated bill pay services, electronic receivables processing, lockbox processing, and merchant card acceptance services. It offers equipment and working capital loans; commercial real estate loans comprising investment properties and business loans; secured and unsecured loans, such as installment and term, lines of credit, and residential first mortgage, as well as home equity loans and home equity lines of credit; and credit cards for consumers and businesses. The company also provides investment products; brokerage and investment advisory programs; and fiduciary and investment services, such as personal trust, investment management, estate administration, endowments, foundations, individual retirement accounts, escrow services, and custody. In addition, it offers insurance agency services primarily in the property and casualty area; merger and acquisition advisory services; and private debt, equity and mezzanine, and other middle-market advisory services. Further, the company provides telephone and online banking, mobile banking, debit and credit cards, direct deposit and remote deposit capture, mobile deposit option, automated teller machine, and cash management services. Pinnacle Financial Partners, Inc. was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee.

About Pacific Valley Bancorp

Pacific Valley Bancorp operates as the bank holding company for Pacific Valley Bank that provides various banking products and services in the United States. The company offers personal and business banking, including checking accounts, savings and money market accounts, and certificates of deposit; and online solutions, such as online and mobile banking, bill pay, remote deposit capture, positive pay, e-statements, and order checks. It also provides commercial or agriculture lines of credit, commercial or agriculture terms loans, commercial constructions loans, agriculture production lending, and government guaranteed loan programs; and debit card, incoming wire instructions, ATM locator, fraud prevention, identity theft, and FDIC insurance estimator services. The company was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Salinas, California.