Ohio Valley Banc (OVBC) Competitors

Ohio Valley Banc (NASDAQ:OVBC) and Alerus Financial (NASDAQ:ALRS) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, media sentiment and earnings.

Do analysts prefer OVBC or ALRS?

Alerus Financial has a consensus target price of $23.00, indicating a potential upside of 0.70%. Given Alerus Financial's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Alerus Financial is more favorable than Ohio Valley Banc.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ohio Valley Banc	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00
Alerus Financial	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.25

Is OVBC or ALRS more profitable?

Ohio Valley Banc has a net margin of 13.86% compared to Alerus Financial's net margin of 7.81%. Ohio Valley Banc's return on equity of 8.35% beat Alerus Financial's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ohio Valley Banc	13.86%	8.35%	0.85%
Alerus Financial	7.81%	8.32%	0.77%

Do institutionals & insiders have more ownership in OVBC or ALRS?

22.1% of Ohio Valley Banc shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 51.3% of Alerus Financial shares are held by institutional investors. 7.1% of Ohio Valley Banc shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.2% of Alerus Financial shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Is OVBC or ALRS a better dividend stock?

Ohio Valley Banc pays an annual dividend of $0.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. Alerus Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. Ohio Valley Banc pays out 34.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Alerus Financial pays out 68.9% 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. Ohio Valley Banc has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years and Alerus Financial has increased its dividend for 25 consecutive years. Alerus Financial is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Which has stronger valuation & earnings, OVBC or ALRS?

Alerus Financial has higher revenue and earnings than Ohio Valley Banc. Ohio Valley Banc is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Alerus Financial, 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
Ohio Valley Banc	$88.93M	1.82	$11M	$2.68	12.80
Alerus Financial	$336.51M	1.72	$17.78M	$1.22	18.72

Which has more volatility & risk, OVBC or ALRS?

Ohio Valley Banc has a beta of 0.11, suggesting that its share price is 89% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Alerus Financial has a beta of 0.7, suggesting that its share price is 30% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media refer more to OVBC or ALRS?

In the previous week, Alerus Financial had 1 more articles in the media than Ohio Valley Banc. MarketBeat recorded 6 mentions for Alerus Financial and 5 mentions for Ohio Valley Banc. Ohio Valley Banc's average media sentiment score of 0.11 beat Alerus Financial's score of -0.12 indicating that Ohio Valley Banc is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Ohio Valley Banc	0 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Alerus Financial	2 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Summary

Alerus Financial beats Ohio Valley Banc on 11 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.