Reviewing U.S.A Bank (OTCMKTS:USBK) & Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST)

U.S.A Bank (OTCMKTS:USBK) and Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, valuation, risk, institutional ownership, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

47.4% of Business First Bancshares shares are held by institutional investors. 6.5% of Business First Bancshares shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility and Risk

U.S.A Bank has a beta of -24.99, meaning that its stock price is 2,599% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Business First Bancshares has a beta of 0.95, meaning that its stock price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings for U.S.A Bank and Business First Bancshares, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
U.S.A Bank	0	0	0	0	N/A
Business First Bancshares	0	1	3	0	2.75

Business First Bancshares has a consensus target price of $23.33, suggesting a potential upside of 11.11%. Given Business First Bancshares’ higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Business First Bancshares is more favorable than U.S.A Bank.

Profitability

This table compares U.S.A Bank and Business First Bancshares’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
U.S.A Bank	N/A	N/A	N/A
Business First Bancshares	17.08%	12.99%	1.09%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares U.S.A Bank and Business First Bancshares’ top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
U.S.A Bank	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Business First Bancshares	$389.97 million	1.38	$71.04 million	$2.54	8.27

Business First Bancshares has higher revenue and earnings than U.S.A Bank.

Summary

Business First Bancshares beats U.S.A Bank on 9 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About U.S.A Bank

As of July 10, 2010, U.S.A Bank was acquired by Customers Bank (Phoenixville, Pennsylvania). U.S.A Bank operates as a community bank in New York. It offers deposit products, Internet banking, ATM cards, consumer loans, and residential and commercial loans. U.S.A Bank was founded in 2005 and is based in Port Chester, New York.

About Business First Bancshares

Business First Bancshares, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for b1BANK that provides various banking products and services in Louisiana and Texas. It offers various deposit products and services, including checking, demand, money market, time, and savings accounts; and certificates of deposits, remote deposit capture, and direct deposit services. The company also provides commercial and industrial loans, such as working capital, term, equipment financing, asset acquisition, expansion and development, borrowing base, and other loan products, as well as commercial lines of credit, accounts receivable factoring, agricultural financing, and letters of credit; construction and development loans; commercial real estate loans; residential real estate loans comprising first and second lien 1-4 family mortgage loans, and home equity lines of credit; and consumer loans, including secured and unsecured installment, and term loans. In addition, it offers wealth management products, including mutual funds, annuities, individual retirement accounts, and other financial products, as well as other fiduciary and private banking products and services. Further, the company provides a range of other financial services comprising debit and credit cards, treasury and cash management, merchant, automated clearing house, lock-box, receivables factoring, correspondent banking, and other treasury services, as well as employee and payroll benefits solutions; and drive-through banking facilities, automated teller machines, night depository, personalized checks, electronic funds transfer, domestic and foreign wire transfer, traveler's checks, vault, loan and deposit sweep accounts, online and mobile banking, e-statements, and bank-by-mail services. Business First Bancshares, Inc. was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.