Contrasting UBS Group (NYSE:UBS) and Southern California Bancorp (NASDAQ:BCAL)

Southern California Bancorp (NASDAQ:BCAL) and UBS Group (NYSE:UBS) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, risk, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Southern California Bancorp and UBS Group, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Southern California Bancorp	0	1	1	0	2.50
UBS Group	0	3	2	0	2.40

Southern California Bancorp presently has a consensus price target of $19.00, indicating a potential upside of 29.96%. Given Southern California Bancorp’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Southern California Bancorp is more favorable than UBS Group.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

55.4% of Southern California Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 19.6% of Southern California Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of UBS Group shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Southern California Bancorp and UBS Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Southern California Bancorp	-4.51%	6.72%	0.85%
UBS Group	5.13%	4.69%	0.25%

Volatility & Risk

Southern California Bancorp has a beta of 0.74, meaning that its share price is 26% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, UBS Group has a beta of 1.15, meaning that its share price is 15% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Southern California Bancorp and UBS Group”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Southern California Bancorp	$126.90 million	2.14	$25.91 million	($0.08)	-182.75
UBS Group	$65.28 billion	1.53	$27.85 billion	$1.20	25.93

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

About Southern California Bancorp

Southern California Bancorp operates as the holding company for Bank of Southern California, N.A. that provides various financial products to individuals, professionals, and small-to medium-sized businesses. The company offers checking, personal and business savings, and money market accounts, as well as certificates of deposit. It also provides home equity lines of credit, business loans and lines of credit, commercial real estate and construction loans, small business administration loans, letters of credit, and personal and business credit cards. In addition, the company provides cash vault, sweep accounts, and remote deposit capture services; online and mobile banking services; courier service; lockbox services; and merchant services. It operates branches in San Diego, Orange, Ventura, Los Angeles, and Riverside counties, as well as the Inland Empire. The company was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.

About UBS Group

UBS Group AG provides financial advice and solutions to private, institutional, and corporate clients worldwide. It operates through five divisions: Global Wealth Management, Personal & Corporate Banking, Asset Management, Investment Bank, and Non-core and Legacy. The company offers investment advice, estate and wealth planning, investing, corporate and banking, and investment management, as well as mortgage, securities-based, and structured lending solutions. It also provides personal banking products and services, such as deposits, credit and debit cards, and online and mobile banking, as well as lending, investments, retirement, and wealth management services; and corporate and institutional solutions, including equity and debt capital markets, syndicated and structured credit, private placements, leasing, traditional financing, and transaction banking solutions for payment and cash management services, trade and export finance, and global custody solutions. In addition, the company offers equities, fixed income, hedge funds, real estate and private markets, indexed and alternative beta strategies, asset allocation and currency investment strategies, customized multi-asset solutions, advisory and fiduciary services, and multi-manager hedge fund solutions and advisory services. Further, it advises clients on strategic business opportunities and helps them raise capital to fund their activities; enables its clients to buy, sell, and finance securities on capital markets and to manage their risks and liquidity; distributes, trades in, finances, and clears cash equities and equity-linked products; structures, originates, and distributes new equity and equity-linked issues; and originates, distributes, manages risk, and provides liquidity in foreign exchange, rates, credit and precious metals. The company was formerly known as UBS AG and changed its name to UBS Group AG in December 2014. UBS Group AG was founded in 1862 and is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland.