ESSA Bancorp (ESSA) Competitors

TrustCo Bank Corp NY (NASDAQ:TRST) and ESSA Bancorp (NASDAQ:ESSA) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, media sentiment, risk, dividends and earnings.

Does the media favor TRST or ESSA?

In the previous week, ESSA Bancorp had 1 more articles in the media than TrustCo Bank Corp NY. MarketBeat recorded 3 mentions for ESSA Bancorp and 2 mentions for TrustCo Bank Corp NY. ESSA Bancorp's average media sentiment score of 0.99 beat TrustCo Bank Corp NY's score of 0.94 indicating that ESSA Bancorp is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
TrustCo Bank Corp NY	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
ESSA Bancorp	2 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is TRST or ESSA a better dividend stock?

TrustCo Bank Corp NY pays an annual dividend of $1.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.1%. ESSA Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. TrustCo Bank Corp NY pays out 53.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. ESSA Bancorp pays out 38.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.

Which has better valuation and earnings, TRST or ESSA?

TrustCo Bank Corp NY has higher revenue and earnings than ESSA Bancorp. TrustCo Bank Corp NY is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than ESSA Bancorp, 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
TrustCo Bank Corp NY	$263.15M	2.52	$48.83M	$2.68	12.99
ESSA Bancorp	$111.66M	1.83	$16.99M	$1.55	13.02

Which has more volatility & risk, TRST or ESSA?

TrustCo Bank Corp NY has a beta of 0.66, meaning that its stock price is 34% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ESSA Bancorp has a beta of 0.43, meaning that its stock price is 57% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is TRST or ESSA more profitable?

TrustCo Bank Corp NY has a net margin of 19.14% compared to ESSA Bancorp's net margin of 13.20%. TrustCo Bank Corp NY's return on equity of 7.59% beat ESSA Bancorp's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
TrustCo Bank Corp NY	19.14%	7.59%	0.82%
ESSA Bancorp	13.20%	6.84%	0.72%

Do insiders and institutionals have more ownership in TRST or ESSA?

68.6% of TrustCo Bank Corp NY shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 54.2% of ESSA Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.9% of TrustCo Bank Corp NY shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 7.5% of ESSA Bancorp shares are owned by 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.

Summary

TrustCo Bank Corp NY beats ESSA Bancorp on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.