Reviewing Northpointe Bancshares (NYSE:NPB) and Flushing Financial (NASDAQ:FFIC)

Northpointe Bancshares (NYSE:NPB) and Flushing Financial (NASDAQ:FFIC) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, profitability, risk, earnings and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Northpointe Bancshares and Flushing Financial, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Northpointe Bancshares	1	2	1	0	2.00
Flushing Financial	0	3	1	0	2.25

Northpointe Bancshares presently has a consensus target price of $19.83, suggesting a potential upside of 13.64%. Flushing Financial has a consensus target price of $16.80, suggesting a potential upside of 8.49%. Given Northpointe Bancshares’ higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Northpointe Bancshares is more favorable than Flushing Financial.

Dividends

Northpointe Bancshares pays an annual dividend of $0.10 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. Flushing Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.7%. Northpointe Bancshares pays out 4.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Flushing Financial pays out 88.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

67.1% of Flushing Financial shares are held by institutional investors. 18.3% of Northpointe Bancshares shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 5.7% of Flushing Financial shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Northpointe Bancshares and Flushing Financial”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Northpointe Bancshares	$471.18 million	1.28	$83.41 million	$2.22	7.86
Flushing Financial	$489.63 million	1.07	$18.88 million	$1.00	15.49

Northpointe Bancshares has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Flushing Financial. Northpointe Bancshares is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Flushing Financial, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Northpointe Bancshares and Flushing Financial’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Northpointe Bancshares	17.92%	14.80%	1.28%
Flushing Financial	7.15%	6.25%	0.50%

Volatility & Risk

Northpointe Bancshares has a beta of 0.12, meaning that its stock price is 88% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Flushing Financial has a beta of 0.74, meaning that its stock price is 26% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Northpointe Bancshares beats Flushing Financial on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Northpointe Bancshares

Northpointe Bancshares, Inc. operates as a bank holding company. It offers a nationwide mortgage purchase program, residential mortgage loans, digital deposit banking to retail customers and custodial deposit services. The company was founded by Charles A. Williams in 1998 and is headquartered in Grand Rapids, MI.

About Flushing Financial

Flushing Financial Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Flushing Bank that provides banking products and services primarily to consumers, businesses, and governmental units. It offers various deposit products, including checking and savings accounts, money market accounts, non-interest bearing demand accounts, NOW accounts, and certificates of deposit. The company also provides mortgage loans secured by multi-family residential, commercial real estate, one-to-four family mixed-use property, one-to-four family residential property, and commercial business loans; construction loans; small business administration loans and other small business loans; mortgage loan surrogates, such as mortgage-backed securities; and consumer loans, including overdraft lines of credit, as well as the United States government securities, corporate fixed-income securities, and other marketable securities. It operates full-service banking offices in Queens, Nassau, Suffolk, Kings, and New York counties, New York; and an internet branch under the iGObanking and BankPurely brands. Flushing Financial Corporation was founded in 1929 and is based in Uniondale, New York.