Bank of the James Financial Group (BOTJ) Competitors

Bank of the James Financial Group (NASDAQ:BOTJ) and Southern First Bancshares (NASDAQ:SFST) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their community ranking, valuation, profitability, institutional ownership, media sentiment, earnings, dividends, risk and analyst recommendations.

Which has more risk and volatility, BOTJ or SFST?

Bank of the James Financial Group has a beta of 0.43, indicating that its share price is 57% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Southern First Bancshares has a beta of 0.73, indicating that its share price is 27% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do insiders & institutionals believe in BOTJ or SFST?

18.5% of Bank of the James Financial Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 75.0% of Southern First Bancshares shares are held by institutional investors. 15.3% of Bank of the James Financial Group shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.6% of Southern First Bancshares shares are held 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.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor BOTJ or SFST?

Southern First Bancshares received 119 more outperform votes than Bank of the James Financial Group when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 62.50% of users gave Bank of the James Financial Group an outperform vote while only 52.79% of users gave Southern First Bancshares an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Bank of the James Financial Group	Outperform Votes 80 62.50%	Underperform Votes 48 37.50%
Southern First Bancshares	Outperform Votes 199 52.79%	Underperform Votes 178 47.21%

Is BOTJ or SFST more profitable?

Bank of the James Financial Group has a net margin of 13.29% compared to Southern First Bancshares' net margin of 7.28%. Bank of the James Financial Group's return on equity of 12.48% beat Southern First Bancshares' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Bank of the James Financial Group	13.29%	12.48%	0.80%
Southern First Bancshares	7.28%	4.85%	0.38%

Does the media prefer BOTJ or SFST?

In the previous week, Bank of the James Financial Group had 1 more articles in the media than Southern First Bancshares. MarketBeat recorded 2 mentions for Bank of the James Financial Group and 1 mentions for Southern First Bancshares. Southern First Bancshares' average media sentiment score of 1.70 beat Bank of the James Financial Group's score of 1.43 indicating that Southern First Bancshares is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Bank of the James Financial Group	1 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Southern First Bancshares	1 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, BOTJ or SFST?

Southern First Bancshares has higher revenue and earnings than Bank of the James Financial Group. Bank of the James Financial Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Southern First Bancshares, 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
Bank of the James Financial Group	$43.56M	1.46	$7.94M	$1.75	7.94
Southern First Bancshares	$93.34M	2.74	$15.53M	$1.92	16.28

Summary

Southern First Bancshares beats Bank of the James Financial Group on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.