Investar (ISTR) Competitors

Investar (NASDAQ:ISTR) and X Financial (NYSE:XYF) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, profitability, dividends, valuation and earnings.

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, ISTR or XYF?

X Financial has higher revenue and earnings than Investar. X Financial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Investar, 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
Investar	$158.07M	1.39	$20.25M	$2.19	10.22
X Financial	$2.76B	0.29	$210.97M	$4.80	3.96

Is ISTR or XYF a better dividend stock?

Investar pays an annual dividend of $0.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. X Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. Investar pays out 20.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. X Financial pays out 10.0% 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. Investar has raised its dividend for 10 consecutive years. X Financial is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Is ISTR or XYF more profitable?

X Financial has a net margin of 24.76% compared to Investar's net margin of 13.99%. X Financial's return on equity of 23.30% beat Investar's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Investar	13.99%	8.60%	0.75%
X Financial	24.76%	23.30%	13.70%

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of ISTR or XYF?

50.2% of Investar shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 1.1% of X Financial shares are held by institutional investors. 8.8% of Investar shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 31.6% of X Financial shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Do analysts rate ISTR or XYF?

Investar currently has a consensus price target of $27.00, indicating a potential upside of 20.64%. Given Investar's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Investar is more favorable than X Financial.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Investar	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
X Financial	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00

Which has more risk & volatility, ISTR or XYF?

Investar has a beta of 0.56, meaning that its stock price is 44% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, X Financial has a beta of 0.2, meaning that its stock price is 80% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media prefer ISTR or XYF?

In the previous week, Investar had 3 more articles in the media than X Financial. MarketBeat recorded 4 mentions for Investar and 1 mentions for X Financial. X Financial's average media sentiment score of 1.43 beat Investar's score of 0.83 indicating that X Financial is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Investar	3 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
X Financial	1 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

X Financial beats Investar on 10 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.