Digital small business lender Live Oak Bancshares (NYSE: LOB) reported Q4 CY2025 results beating Wall Street’s revenue expectations, with sales up 29.9% year on year to $172.9 million. Its GAAP profit of $0.95 per share was 18.3% above analysts’ consensus estimates.

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“Live Oak Bank delivered solid performance in 2025, a year defined by the resilience of small businesses and a disciplined focus on our core mission,” said Live Oak Chairman and CEO James S. (Chip) Mahan III.

Company Overview

Founded during the 2008 financial crisis with a vision to reimagine small business banking through technology, Live Oak Bancshares (NYSE: LOB) is a bank holding company that specializes in providing online banking services and SBA-guaranteed loans to small businesses across targeted industries nationwide.

Sales Growth

In general, banks make money from two primary sources. The first is net interest income, which is interest earned on loans, mortgages, and investments in securities minus interest paid out on deposits. The second source is non-interest income, which can come from bank account, credit card, wealth management, investing banking, and trading fees. Thankfully, Live Oak Bancshares’s 16.9% annualized revenue growth over the last five years was excellent. Its growth beat the average banking company and shows its offerings resonate with customers, a helpful starting point for our analysis.

We at StockStory place the most emphasis on long-term growth, but within financials, a half-decade historical view may miss recent interest rate changes, market returns, and industry trends. Live Oak Bancshares’s annualized revenue growth of 15.6% over the last two years is below its five-year trend, but we still think the results suggest healthy demand. Note: Quarters not shown were determined to be outliers, impacted by outsized investment gains/losses that are not indicative of the recurring fundamentals of the business.

This quarter, Live Oak Bancshares reported robust year-on-year revenue growth of 29.9%, and its $172.9 million of revenue topped Wall Street estimates by 14.9%.

Net interest income made up 75.2% of the company’s total revenue during the last five years, meaning lending operations are Live Oak Bancshares’s largest source of revenue.

Markets consistently prioritize net interest income growth over fee-based revenue, recognizing its superior quality and recurring nature compared to the more unpredictable non-interest income streams.

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Tangible Book Value Per Share (TBVPS)

Banks operate as balance sheet businesses, with profits generated through borrowing and lending activities. Valuations reflect this reality, emphasizing balance sheet strength and long-term book value compounding ability.

Because of this, tangible book value per share (TBVPS) emerges as the critical performance benchmark. By excluding intangible assets with uncertain liquidation values, this metric captures real, liquid net worth per share. Other (and more commonly known) per-share metrics like EPS can sometimes be murky due to M&A or accounting rules allowing for loan losses to be spread out.

Live Oak Bancshares’s TBVPS grew at an incredible 13.3% annual clip over the last five years. TBVPS growth has recently decelerated a bit to 11.1% annual growth over the last two years (from $20.23 to $24.97 per share).

Over the next 12 months, Consensus estimates call for Live Oak Bancshares’s TBVPS to grow by 13.4% to $28.31, decent growth rate.

Key Takeaways from Live Oak Bancshares’s Q4 Results

We were impressed by how significantly Live Oak Bancshares blew past analysts’ revenue expectations this quarter. We were also glad its EPS outperformed Wall Street’s estimates. On the other hand, its tangible book value per share missed. Zooming out, we think this was a good print with some key areas of upside. The stock remained flat at $39 immediately following the results.

Is Live Oak Bancshares an attractive investment opportunity right now? We think that the latest quarter is only one piece of the longer-term business quality puzzle. Quality, when combined with valuation, can help determine if the stock is a buy. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here (it’s free).