Sifting through countless of stocks in the Banks industry can be tedious, and sometimes two stocks are just too similar to judge which is the better investment. If you’re on the fence about investing in Live Oak Bancshares, Inc., Nicolet Bankshares or Inc. because you’re not sure how they measure up, it’s important to compare them on a few factors before making your decision.

Read on to learn how Live Oak Bancshares, Inc., Nicolet Bankshares and Inc. compare based on key financial metrics to determine which better meets your investment needs.

About Live Oak Bancshares, Inc., Nicolet Bankshares and Inc.

Live Oak Bancshares, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Live Oak Banking Company that provides various banking products and services in the United States. The company accepts various deposit products, including noninterest-bearing demand, as well as interest-bearing checking, money market, savings, and time deposits. It also provides commercial and industrial loans; construction and development loans; owner occupied and non-owner occupied collateral commercial real estate loans; and commercial land loans. In addition, the company offers settlement, accounting, and securitization services for government guaranteed loans; financing for renewable energy application industry; strategic wealth and investment management services to high-net-worth individuals and families; and investment advisory services to a series of funds focused on providing venture capital to new and emerging financial technology companies. Live Oak Bancshares, Inc. was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Nicolet Bankshares, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Nicolet National Bank that provides banking products and services for businesses and individuals in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota. The company accepts demand deposits, checking, savings, and money market accounts; various certificates of deposit; and individual retirement accounts. It also offers commercial loans, including commercial, industrial, and business loans and lines of credit; commercial real estate loans; agricultural (AG) production and AG real estate loans; commercial real estate investment loans; construction and land development loans; residential real estate loans, such as residential first lien and junior lien mortgages, home equity loans, and residential construction loans; and consumer loans. In addition, the company provides cash management, international banking, personal brokerage, safe deposit boxes, and trust and fiduciary services, as well as wealth management and retirement plan services. Further, it offers mortgage refinancing; online services, such as commercial, retail, and trust online banking; automated bill payment, mobile banking deposits and account access, and remote deposit capture services; and other services consisting of wire transfers, debit cards, credit cards, pre-paid gift cards, direct deposits, and official bank checks, as well as facilitates crop insurance products. The company was formerly known as Green Bay Financial Corporation and changed its name to Nicolet Bankshares, Inc. in March 2002. The company was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Latest Banks and Live Oak Bancshares, Inc., Nicolet Bankshares, Inc. Stock News

As of July 31, 2026, Live Oak Bancshares, Inc. had a $2.0 billion market capitalization, compared to the Banks median of $716.9 million. Live Oak Bancshares, Inc.’s stock is up 24.6% in 2026, up 1.7% in the previous five trading days and up 33.04% in the past year.

Currently, Live Oak Bancshares, Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 16.4. Live Oak Bancshares, Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $512.2 million with a 26.5% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 33.5%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $3.050 per share for the current fiscal year. Live Oak Bancshares, Inc. currently has a 0.3% dividend yield.

As of July 31, 2026, Nicolet Bankshares, Inc. had a $3.6 billion market cap, putting it in the 62nd percentile of all stocks. Nicolet Bankshares, Inc.’s stock is up 40.9% in 2026, up 0.8% in the previous five trading days and up 31.88% in the past year.

Currently, Nicolet Bankshares, Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 20.7. Nicolet Bankshares, Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $428.7 million with a 30.2% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 46.5%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $12.048 per share for the current fiscal year. Nicolet Bankshares, Inc. currently has a 0.8% dividend yield.

How We Compare Live Oak Bancshares, Inc., Nicolet Bankshares and Inc. Stock Grades

Stock evaluation requires access to huge amounts of data and the knowledge and time to sift through it all, make sense of financial ratios, read income statements and analyze recent stock movements. AAII created A+ Investor, a robust data suite that condenses data research in an actionable and customizable way suitable for investors of all knowledge levels, to help investors streamline and work through such data.

AAII’s proprietary stock grades come with A+ Investor. These offer intuitive A‐F grades for each of five key investing factors: value, growth, momentum, earnings estimate revisions and quality. Here, we’ll take a closer look at Live Oak Bancshares, Inc., Nicolet Bankshares and Inc.’s stock grades to see how they measure up against one another.

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Live Oak Bancshares, Inc., Nicolet Bankshares and Inc. Stock Value Grades

Company	Ticker	Value
Live Oak Bancshares, Inc.	LOB	C
Nicolet Bankshares, Inc.	NIC	D

Successful stock investing involves buying low and selling high, so stock valuation is an important consideration for stock selection.

Buying stocks that are going to go up typically means buying stocks that are undervalued in the first place, although momentum investors may argue that point.

AAII’s A+ Investor Value Grade derives from a stock’s value score. The Value Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of the price-to-sales ratio, price-earnings ratio, enterprise-value-to-EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) ratio, shareholder yield, price-to-book-value ratio and price-to-free-cash-flow ratio. The score is variable, meaning it can consider all six ratios or, should any of the six ratios not be valid, the remaining ratios that are valid. To be assigned a Value Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) ratio and corresponding ranking for at least two of the six valuation ratios.

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are a good value and so on.

Live Oak Bancshares, Inc. has a Value Score of 54, which is Average. Nicolet Bankshares, Inc. has a Value Score of 25, which is Expensive.

The Value Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither Live Oak Bancshares, Inc., Nicolet Bankshares or Inc. has a high enough value grade to be considered a “winner.” Investors who are considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolio. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if Live Oak Bancshares, Inc., Nicolet Bankshares or Inc. is the better investment when it comes to value.

Live Oak Bancshares, Inc., Nicolet Bankshares and Inc. Growth Grades

Company	Ticker	Growth
Live Oak Bancshares, Inc.	LOB	C
Nicolet Bankshares, Inc.	NIC	A

The foundation of growth investing is seeking out stocks of companies exhibiting strong, consistent and prolonged growth that is expected to continue into the future.

In order to compute the growth score and assign it a letter grade, the percentile ranks for each of three components‐consistency of annual sales growth, five-year sales growth rankings adjusted for extreme levels, and consistency of positive annual cash from operations‐must be determined. These three rank figures are added together, and the sum is ranked against the entire stock universe to arrive at a company’s Growth Score to create an equal distribution of grades.

The companies in the bottom 20% of the stock universe receive Growth Grades of F, considered to be very weak, while those in the top 20% receive A grades, which are considered very strong.

Live Oak Bancshares, Inc. has a Growth Score of 48, which is Average. Nicolet Bankshares, Inc. has a Growth Score of 83, which is Very Strong.

The Growth Grade Winner: Nicolet Bankshares, Inc.

As you can clearly see from the Growth Grade breakdown above, Nicolet Bankshares, Inc. has a more attractive growth grade than Live Oak Bancshares, Inc.. For investors who focus solely on how a company is growing relative to other companies in the same industry, Nicolet Bankshares, Inc. could be a good stock to add to their portfolio. However, it’s important for investors to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

Live Oak Bancshares, Inc., Nicolet Bankshares and Inc.’s Quality Grades

Company	Ticker	Quality
Live Oak Bancshares, Inc.	LOB	F
Nicolet Bankshares, Inc.	NIC	F

Like the Value Grade, AAII’s A+ Investor Quality Grade comes from the percentile rank of key metrics. Specifically, the Quality Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of return on assets (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), gross profit relative to assets, buyback yield, change in total liabilities to assets, accruals, Z double prime bankruptcy risk (Z) score and the F-Score.

The score is variable, meaning it can consider all eight measures or, should any of the eight measures not be valid, the remaining measures that are valid. To be assigned a Quality Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) measure and corresponding ranking for at least four of the eight quality measures.

The Quality Score is used to assess the underlying “quality” of a particular stock. A higher-quality stock possesses traits associated with upside potential and reduced downside risk. Backtesting of the Quality Grade shows that stocks with higher grades, on average, outperformed stocks with lower grades over the period of 1998 through 2019.

Stocks receive better grades (higher scores) for having higher scores for the quality subcomponents and worse grades (lower scores) for lower scores for the subcomponents.

Live Oak Bancshares, Inc. has a Quality Score of 13, which is Very Weak. Nicolet Bankshares, Inc. has a Quality Score of 0, which is Very Weak.

The Quality Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither Live Oak Bancshares, Inc., Nicolet Bankshares or Inc. has a high enough Quality Grade to be considered a “winner.” Investors who are considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolios. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if Live Oak Bancshares, Inc., Nicolet Bankshares or Inc. is the better investment when it comes to quality.

Other Live Oak Bancshares, Inc., Nicolet Bankshares and Inc. Grades

In addition to Quality, Value and Growth, A+ Investor also provides grades for Momentum and Estimate Revisions.

Momentum grades help uncover stocks experiencing anomalously high rates of return; research finds that stocks with high relative levels of momentum tend to outperform, whereas those with low levels of momentum tend to continue underperforming.

Earnings estimate revisions scores take into account the magnitude of a company’s earnings surprise in its last two reported fiscal quarters. Often, surprises beget further surprises‐or at least continued sales growth (the exact opposite is generally true, too).

These 2 key factors, when combined with the above, provide a holistic view into a particular stock. Further, by joining A+ Investor you can see whether Live Oak Bancshares, Inc., Nicolet Bankshares and Inc. pass any of our 60+ stock screens that have outperformed the market since their creation.

So, Which Is the Better Investment, Live Oak Bancshares, Inc., Nicolet Bankshares or Inc. Stock?

Overall, Live Oak Bancshares, Inc. stock has a Value Score of 54, Growth Score of 48 and Quality Score of 13.

Nicolet Bankshares, Inc. stock has a Value Score of 25, Growth Score of 83 and Quality Score of 0.

Comparing Live Oak Bancshares, Inc., Nicolet Bankshares and Inc.’s grades, scores and metrics can act as a solid basis to determine whether they may be a good investment or not. You’ll also want to look at your portfolio’s asset allocation as well as your risk tolerance and financial goals to see if either of these stocks would make a good fit for you. AAII can help you figure out which investments align with your individual needs and preferences.

Investors are encouraged to do their own due diligence and research. In this way, individuals can effectively become managers of their own assets‐without having to rely on others for financial independence. You can count on AAII for timeless articles on financial planning and stock-picking, unbiased research and actionable analysis.

A+ Investor adds to our qualitative teaching with a powerful data suite to help you whittle down investment choices to find stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that meet your needs.

AAII Disclaimer

We make no representations or warranties that any investor will, or is likely to, achieve profits similar to those shown, because past, hypothetical or simulated performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Before making an investment decision, you should consider your circumstances and whether the information on our content is applicable to your situation. This information was prepared in good faith, and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions. The full disclaimer can be read here.