Southern National Bancorp of Virginia (SONA) Competitors

Southern National Bancorp of Virginia (NASDAQ:SONA) and Amalgamated Financial (NASDAQ:AMAL) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, valuation, profitability, media sentiment, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, community ranking, dividends and risk.

Does the media favor SONA or AMAL?

In the previous week, Amalgamated Financial had 14 more articles in the media than Southern National Bancorp of Virginia. MarketBeat recorded 14 mentions for Amalgamated Financial and 0 mentions for Southern National Bancorp of Virginia. Amalgamated Financial's average media sentiment score of 0.62 beat Southern National Bancorp of Virginia's score of 0.00 indicating that Amalgamated Financial is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Overall Sentiment
Southern National Bancorp of Virginia	Neutral
Amalgamated Financial	Positive

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer SONA or AMAL?

Southern National Bancorp of Virginia received 79 more outperform votes than Amalgamated Financial when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 56.63% of users gave Amalgamated Financial an outperform vote while only 39.23% of users gave Southern National Bancorp of Virginia an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Southern National Bancorp of Virginia	Outperform Votes 173 39.23%	Underperform Votes 268 60.77%
Amalgamated Financial	Outperform Votes 94 56.63%	Underperform Votes 72 43.37%

Do institutionals & insiders hold more shares of SONA or AMAL?

77.2% of Southern National Bancorp of Virginia shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 75.9% of Amalgamated Financial shares are held by institutional investors. 5.9% of Southern National Bancorp of Virginia shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.3% of Amalgamated Financial shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Do analysts prefer SONA or AMAL?

Amalgamated Financial has a consensus price target of $36.50, suggesting a potential upside of 29.62%. Given Amalgamated Financial's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Amalgamated Financial is more favorable than Southern National Bancorp of Virginia.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Southern National Bancorp of Virginia	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00
Amalgamated Financial	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.67

Which has more volatility & risk, SONA or AMAL?

Southern National Bancorp of Virginia has a beta of 1.02, suggesting that its stock price is 2% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Amalgamated Financial has a beta of 0.75, suggesting that its stock price is 25% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is SONA or AMAL more profitable?

Amalgamated Financial has a net margin of 24.50% compared to Southern National Bancorp of Virginia's net margin of 17.12%. Amalgamated Financial's return on equity of 16.49% beat Southern National Bancorp of Virginia's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Southern National Bancorp of Virginia	17.12%	7.23%	0.94%
Amalgamated Financial	24.50%	16.49%	1.30%

Which has higher valuation and earnings, SONA or AMAL?

Amalgamated Financial has higher revenue and earnings than Southern National Bancorp of Virginia. Southern National Bancorp of Virginia is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Amalgamated 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
Southern National Bancorp of Virginia	$133.11M	1.51	$33.17M	$1.48	5.57
Amalgamated Financial	$316.48M	2.73	$106.43M	$3.37	8.36

Is SONA or AMAL a better dividend stock?

Southern National Bancorp of Virginia pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.9%. Amalgamated Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. Southern National Bancorp of Virginia pays out 27.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Amalgamated Financial pays out 16.6% 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.

Summary

Amalgamated Financial beats Southern National Bancorp of Virginia on 14 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.