BayFirst Financial (BAFN) Competitors

BayFirst Financial (NASDAQ:BAFN) and Investar (NASDAQ:ISTR) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, earnings, valuation, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability and dividends.

Do institutionals & insiders have more ownership in BAFN or ISTR?

16.9% of BayFirst Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 50.2% of Investar shares are owned by institutional investors. 18.8% of BayFirst Financial shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.8% of Investar shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has better earnings & valuation, BAFN or ISTR?

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

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
BayFirst Financial	$143.28M	0.27	$12.60M	$1.73	5.35
Investar	$158.07M	1.37	$20.25M	$2.24	9.83

Do analysts prefer BAFN or ISTR?

Investar has a consensus price target of $27.00, suggesting a potential upside of 22.67%. Given Investar's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Investar is more favorable than BayFirst Financial.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
BayFirst Financial	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00
Investar	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Which has more volatility and risk, BAFN or ISTR?

BayFirst Financial has a beta of 0.4, meaning that its share price is 60% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Investar has a beta of 0.6, meaning that its share price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is BAFN or ISTR a better dividend stock?

BayFirst Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. Investar pays an annual dividend of $0.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. BayFirst Financial pays out 18.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Investar pays out 19.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Investar has increased its dividend for 10 consecutive years. BayFirst Financial is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Does the media favor BAFN or ISTR?

In the previous week, BayFirst Financial had 1 more articles in the media than Investar. MarketBeat recorded 3 mentions for BayFirst Financial and 2 mentions for Investar. Investar's average media sentiment score of 1.49 beat BayFirst Financial's score of 0.63 indicating that Investar is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
BayFirst Financial	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Investar	1 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is BAFN or ISTR more profitable?

Investar has a net margin of 14.33% compared to BayFirst Financial's net margin of 6.65%. BayFirst Financial's return on equity of 10.14% beat Investar's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
BayFirst Financial	6.65%	10.14%	0.72%
Investar	14.33%	8.84%	0.80%

Summary

Investar beats BayFirst Financial on 14 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.