Open Lending (LPRO) Competitors

Open Lending (NASDAQ:LPRO) and SmartFinancial (NASDAQ:SMBK) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, community ranking, risk, earnings and media sentiment.

Do insiders and institutionals have more ownership in LPRO or SMBK?

78.1% of Open Lending shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 58.8% of SmartFinancial shares are owned by institutional investors. 15.0% of Open Lending shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 7.7% of SmartFinancial shares are owned 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.

Does the media prefer LPRO or SMBK?

In the previous week, SmartFinancial had 2 more articles in the media than Open Lending. MarketBeat recorded 8 mentions for SmartFinancial and 6 mentions for Open Lending. SmartFinancial's average media sentiment score of 1.15 beat Open Lending's score of 0.09 indicating that SmartFinancial is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Open Lending	1 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
SmartFinancial	6 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has more volatility and risk, LPRO or SMBK?

Open Lending has a beta of 1.57, meaning that its share price is 57% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SmartFinancial has a beta of 0.59, meaning that its share price is 41% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, LPRO or SMBK?

SmartFinancial has higher revenue and earnings than Open Lending. Open Lending is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than SmartFinancial, 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
Open Lending	$24.02M	4.16	$22.07M	-$1.14	-0.73
SmartFinancial	$171.50M	2.86	$36.14M	$2.14	13.46

Is LPRO or SMBK more profitable?

SmartFinancial has a net margin of 12.67% compared to Open Lending's net margin of 4.78%. SmartFinancial's return on equity of 7.33% beat Open Lending's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Open Lending	4.78%	2.15%	1.20%
SmartFinancial	12.67%	7.33%	0.71%

Do analysts recommend LPRO or SMBK?

Open Lending presently has a consensus target price of $4.62, suggesting a potential upside of 453.62%. SmartFinancial has a consensus target price of $30.70, suggesting a potential upside of 6.56%. Given Open Lending's higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Open Lending is more favorable than SmartFinancial.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Open Lending	0 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.38
SmartFinancial	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.40

Does the MarketBeat Community favor LPRO or SMBK?

SmartFinancial received 112 more outperform votes than Open Lending when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 58.31% of users gave SmartFinancial an outperform vote while only 57.04% of users gave Open Lending an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Open Lending	Outperform Votes 81 57.04%	Underperform Votes 61 42.96%
SmartFinancial	Outperform Votes 193 58.31%	Underperform Votes 138 41.69%

Summary

SmartFinancial beats Open Lending on 11 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.