Critical Analysis: Blue Ridge Bankshares (NASDAQ:BRBS) and HarborOne Bancorp (NASDAQ:HONE)

Blue Ridge Bankshares (NASDAQ:BRBS) and HarborOne Bancorp (NASDAQ:HONE) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, risk, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Blue Ridge Bankshares and HarborOne Bancorp, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Blue Ridge Bankshares	0	0	0	0	0.00
HarborOne Bancorp	0	1	0	0	2.00

HarborOne Bancorp has a consensus price target of $13.00, indicating a potential upside of 8.06%. Given HarborOne Bancorp’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe HarborOne Bancorp is more favorable than Blue Ridge Bankshares.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

50.5% of Blue Ridge Bankshares shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 65.0% of HarborOne Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 4.9% of Blue Ridge Bankshares shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 4.9% of HarborOne Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Blue Ridge Bankshares and HarborOne Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Blue Ridge Bankshares	-10.60%	-7.44%	-0.63%
HarborOne Bancorp	3.68%	3.82%	0.38%

Risk and Volatility

Blue Ridge Bankshares has a beta of 0.82, meaning that its stock price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, HarborOne Bancorp has a beta of 0.76, meaning that its stock price is 24% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Blue Ridge Bankshares and HarborOne Bancorp”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Blue Ridge Bankshares	$197.54 million	1.26	-$51.77 million	($0.91)	-3.73
HarborOne Bancorp	$286.14 million	1.85	$16.08 million	$0.28	42.97

HarborOne Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than Blue Ridge Bankshares. Blue Ridge Bankshares is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than HarborOne Bancorp, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

HarborOne Bancorp beats Blue Ridge Bankshares on 11 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Blue Ridge Bankshares

Blue Ridge Bankshares, Inc. operates as a bank holding company for the Blue Ridge Bank, National Association that provides commercial and consumer banking, and financial services. It operates through: Commercial Banking and Mortgage Banking segments. The company accepts checking, savings, money market, cash management, and individual retirement accounts, as well as certificates of deposit. It also offers commercial and industrial, residential mortgages, commercial mortgages, home equity, consumer installment, and guaranteed government loans; and residential mortgage loans and mortgages loans on real estate. In addition, it provides wire, direct deposit payroll, remote deposit, electronic statement, and other services; and property and casualty insurance products to individuals and businesses, as well as online, mobile, and telephone banking services. Further, the company offers employee benefit plans and administration services; management services for personal and corporate trusts, including estate planning and settlement, and trust administration, investment and wealth management services. It operates in Callao, Charlottesville, Chester, Colonial Heights, Culpeper, Fredericksburg, Gordonsville, Harrisonburg, Hartfield, Henrico, Kilmarnock, Louisa, Luray, Martinsville, Midlothian, Mineral, Montross, Orange, Petersburg, Richmond, Shenandoah, Suffolk, Virginia Beach, Warsaw, and White Stone, Virginia; and Greensboro, North Carolina. The company was founded in 1893 and is headquartered in Charlottesville, Virginia.

About HarborOne Bancorp

HarborOne Bancorp, Inc. operates as the holding company for HarborOne Bank that provides financial services to individuals, families, small and mid-size businesses, and municipalities. The company operates in two segments, HarborOne Bank and HarborOne Mortgage. Its primary deposit products include checking, money market, savings, and term certificate of deposit accounts; and primary lending products comprise commercial real estate, commercial, residential mortgages, home equity, and consumer loans. The company also originates, sells, and services residential mortgage loans. In addition, it provides various educational services, such as free digital content, webinars, and recordings for small business and personal financial education under the HarborOne U name. The company operates through a network of full-service branches located in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, as well as commercial lending offices in each of Boston, Massachusetts, and Providence, Rhode Island, as well as administrative offices in Brockton, Massachusetts, as well as ATM locations in Massachusetts. HarborOne Bancorp, Inc. was founded in 1917 and is headquartered in Brockton, Massachusetts.