ESSA Bancorp (ESSA) Competitors

ESSA Bancorp (NASDAQ:ESSA) and Capitol Federal Financial (NASDAQ:CFFN) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, media sentiment, earnings, institutional ownership, dividends, community ranking, analyst recommendations, valuation and risk.

Do institutionals & insiders believe in ESSA or CFFN?

54.2% of ESSA Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 88.5% of Capitol Federal Financial shares are held by institutional investors. 7.5% of ESSA Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 3.2% of Capitol Federal Financial shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Which has higher valuation and earnings, ESSA or CFFN?

Capitol Federal Financial has higher revenue and earnings than ESSA Bancorp. ESSA Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Capitol Federal Financial, 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
ESSA Bancorp	$65.23M	2.95	$16.99M	$1.55	12.24
Capitol Federal Financial	$183.58M	4.19	$38.01M	$0.40	14.48

Is ESSA or CFFN more profitable?

ESSA Bancorp has a net margin of 14.83% compared to Capitol Federal Financial's net margin of 12.67%. ESSA Bancorp's return on equity of 7.27% beat Capitol Federal Financial's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ESSA Bancorp	14.83%	7.27%	0.75%
Capitol Federal Financial	12.67%	4.96%	0.53%

Do analysts rate ESSA or CFFN?

Capitol Federal Financial has a consensus price target of $6.50, indicating a potential upside of 12.26%. Given Capitol Federal Financial's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Capitol Federal Financial is more favorable than ESSA Bancorp.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ESSA Bancorp	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00
Capitol Federal Financial	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer ESSA or CFFN?

Capitol Federal Financial received 100 more outperform votes than ESSA Bancorp when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 55.47% of users gave ESSA Bancorp an outperform vote while only 53.58% of users gave Capitol Federal Financial an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
ESSA Bancorp	Outperform Votes 147 55.47%	Underperform Votes 118 44.53%
Capitol Federal Financial	Outperform Votes 247 53.58%	Underperform Votes 214 46.42%

Is ESSA or CFFN a better dividend stock?

ESSA Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.2%. Capitol Federal Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.34 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.9%. ESSA Bancorp pays out 38.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Capitol Federal Financial pays out 85.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Which has more risk & volatility, ESSA or CFFN?

ESSA Bancorp has a beta of 0.32, indicating that its share price is 68% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Capitol Federal Financial has a beta of 0.52, indicating that its share price is 48% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media prefer ESSA or CFFN?

In the previous week, Capitol Federal Financial had 3 more articles in the media than ESSA Bancorp. MarketBeat recorded 6 mentions for Capitol Federal Financial and 3 mentions for ESSA Bancorp. ESSA Bancorp's average media sentiment score of 1.09 beat Capitol Federal Financial's score of 0.86 indicating that ESSA Bancorp is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
ESSA Bancorp	1 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Capitol Federal Financial	2 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Capitol Federal Financial beats ESSA Bancorp on 11 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.