Reviewing Five Star Bancorp (NASDAQ:FSBC) & California First Leasing (OTCMKTS:CFNB)

California First Leasing (OTCMKTS:CFNB) and Five Star Bancorp (NASDAQ:FSBC) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, valuation, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations and profitability.

Volatility & Risk

California First Leasing has a beta of 0.16, indicating that its share price is 84% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Five Star Bancorp has a beta of 0.52, indicating that its share price is 48% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

6.5% of California First Leasing shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 46.9% of Five Star Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 92.2% of California First Leasing shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 25.6% of Five Star Bancorp shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for California First Leasing and Five Star Bancorp, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
California First Leasing	0	0	0	0	0.00
Five Star Bancorp	0	2	5	0	2.71

Five Star Bancorp has a consensus price target of $40.00, suggesting a potential downside of 3.33%. Given Five Star Bancorp’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Five Star Bancorp is more favorable than California First Leasing.

Profitability

This table compares California First Leasing and Five Star Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
California First Leasing	N/A	N/A	N/A
Five Star Bancorp	24.11%	14.73%	1.39%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares California First Leasing and Five Star Bancorp”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
California First Leasing	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Five Star Bancorp	$255.47 million	3.46	$61.61 million	$2.90	14.27

Five Star Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than California First Leasing.

Summary

Five Star Bancorp beats California First Leasing on 9 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About California First Leasing

California First Leasing Corporation provides loans and lease financing for universities, businesses, and other commercial or non-profit organizations. The company was formerly known as California First National Bancorp and changed its name to California First Leasing Corporation in February 2021. California First Leasing Corporation was founded in 1977 and is based in Newport Beach, California.

About Five Star Bancorp

Five Star Bancorp operates as the bank holding company for Five Star Bank that provides a range of banking products and services to small and medium-sized businesses, professionals, and individuals in Northern California. It accepts various deposits, such as money market accounts, noninterest-bearing and interest checking accounts, savings accounts, term certificate accounts, and time deposits. The company also offers loan products, including commercial and residential real estate loans; commercial loans; commercial land loans; farmland loans; commercial and residential construction loans; and consumer and other loans, as well as operating lines of credit. In addition, it provides debit cards; and remote deposit capture, online and mobile banking, and direct deposit services. Five Star Bancorp was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Rancho Cordova, California.