First Financial Northwest (FFNW) Competitors

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

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer ESSA or FFNW?

First Financial Northwest received 65 more outperform votes than ESSA Bancorp when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 61.81% of users gave First Financial Northwest an outperform vote while only 58.57% of users gave ESSA Bancorp an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
ESSA Bancorp	Outperform Votes 147 58.57%	Underperform Votes 104 41.43%
First Financial Northwest	Outperform Votes 212 61.81%	Underperform Votes 131 38.19%

Which has stronger earnings and valuation, ESSA or FFNW?

ESSA Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than First Financial Northwest. ESSA Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than First Financial Northwest, 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	$93.40M	1.77	$18.58M	$1.85	8.80
First Financial Northwest	$80.93M	2.32	$6.30M	$0.68	30.15

Do insiders and institutionals believe in ESSA or FFNW?

54.2% of ESSA Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 55.0% of First Financial Northwest shares are held by institutional investors. 7.5% of ESSA Bancorp shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.2% of First Financial Northwest shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Is ESSA or FFNW more profitable?

ESSA Bancorp has a net margin of 17.88% compared to ESSA Bancorp's net margin of 7.79%. First Financial Northwest's return on equity of 8.22% beat ESSA Bancorp's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ESSA Bancorp	17.88%	8.22%	0.83%
First Financial Northwest	7.79%	3.95%	0.41%

Which has more volatility & risk, ESSA or FFNW?

ESSA Bancorp has a beta of 0.31, meaning that its share price is 69% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, First Financial Northwest has a beta of 0.54, meaning that its share price is 46% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media favor ESSA or FFNW?

In the previous week, ESSA Bancorp had 4 more articles in the media than First Financial Northwest. MarketBeat recorded 7 mentions for ESSA Bancorp and 3 mentions for First Financial Northwest. ESSA Bancorp's average media sentiment score of 0.79 beat First Financial Northwest's score of 0.21 indicating that First Financial Northwest is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
ESSA Bancorp	0 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
First Financial Northwest	1 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do analysts prefer ESSA or FFNW?

First Financial Northwest has a consensus target price of $23.00, suggesting a potential upside of 12.20%. Given ESSA Bancorp's higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe First Financial Northwest 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)	N/A
First Financial Northwest	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33

Is ESSA or FFNW a better dividend stock?

ESSA Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. First Financial Northwest pays an annual dividend of $0.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. ESSA Bancorp pays out 32.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. First Financial Northwest pays out 76.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. First Financial Northwest has increased its dividend for 7 consecutive years. ESSA Bancorp is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Summary

ESSA Bancorp and First Financial Northwest tied by winning 10 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.