Sterling Bancorp (NASDAQ:SBT) and Northfield Bancorp, Inc. (Staten Island, NY) (NASDAQ:NFBK) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, valuation and risk.
Insider and Institutional Ownership
25.2% of Sterling Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 57.0% of Northfield Bancorp, Inc. (Staten Island, NY) shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.0% of Sterling Bancorp shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.1% of Northfield Bancorp, Inc. (Staten Island, NY) shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Profitability
This table compares Sterling Bancorp and Northfield Bancorp, Inc. (Staten Island, NY)'s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets |
|---|
| Sterling Bancorp | -4.51% | -2.03% | -0.17% |
| Northfield Bancorp, Inc. (Staten Island, NY) | 27.71% | 7.14% | 0.98% |
Analyst Recommendations
This is a summary of current ratings for Sterling Bancorp and Northfield Bancorp, Inc. (Staten Island, NY), as provided by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score |
|---|
| Sterling Bancorp | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3.00 |
| Northfield Bancorp, Inc. (Staten Island, NY) | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3.00 |
Sterling Bancorp presently has a consensus target price of $6.00, suggesting a potential upside of 23.46%. Northfield Bancorp, Inc. (Staten Island, NY) has a consensus target price of $13.50, suggesting a potential downside of 18.97%. Given Sterling Bancorp's higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Sterling Bancorp is more favorable than Northfield Bancorp, Inc. (Staten Island, NY).
Volatility and Risk
Sterling Bancorp has a beta of 0.79, meaning that its share price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Northfield Bancorp, Inc. (Staten Island, NY) has a beta of 0.78, meaning that its share price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Valuation & Earnings
This table compares Sterling Bancorp and Northfield Bancorp, Inc. (Staten Island, NY)'s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio |
|---|
| Sterling Bancorp | $155.70 million | 1.57 | $-12,970,000.00 | ($0.26) | -18.69 |
| Northfield Bancorp, Inc. (Staten Island, NY) | $179.62 million | 4.76 | $36.99 million | $0.95 | 17.54 |
Northfield Bancorp, Inc. (Staten Island, NY) has higher revenue and earnings than Sterling Bancorp. Sterling Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Northfield Bancorp, Inc. (Staten Island, NY), indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
Northfield Bancorp, Inc. (Staten Island, NY) beats Sterling Bancorp on 11 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.
