Critical Contrast: ECB Bancorp (ECBK) & Its Peers

ECB Bancorp (NASDAQ:ECBK) is one of 39 publicly-traded companies in the “Savings institutions, except federal” industry, but how does it compare to its rivals? We will compare ECB Bancorp to related businesses based on the strength of its risk, valuation, earnings, profitability, dividends, institutional ownership and analyst recommendations.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares ECB Bancorp and its rivals top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
ECB Bancorp	$30.55 million	$2.72 million	N/A
ECB Bancorp Competitors	$155.89 million	$36.39 million	-3.97

ECB Bancorp’s rivals have higher revenue and earnings than ECB Bancorp.

Profitability

This table compares ECB Bancorp and its rivals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ECB Bancorp	5.14%	1.39%	0.21%
ECB Bancorp Competitors	16.35%	7.54%	0.81%

Volatility and Risk

ECB Bancorp has a beta of 0.27, indicating that its stock price is 73% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ECB Bancorp’s rivals have a beta of 0.54, indicating that their average stock price is 46% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

19.2% of ECB Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 38.7% of shares of all “Savings institutions, except federal” companies are owned by institutional investors. 3.7% of ECB Bancorp shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 7.9% of shares of all “Savings institutions, except federal” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for ECB Bancorp and its rivals, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ECB Bancorp	0	0	0	0	N/A
ECB Bancorp Competitors	73	438	337	4	2.32

As a group, “Savings institutions, except federal” companies have a potential upside of 23.50%. Given ECB Bancorp’s rivals higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe ECB Bancorp has less favorable growth aspects than its rivals.

Summary

ECB Bancorp rivals beat ECB Bancorp on 9 of the 10 factors compared.

About ECB Bancorp

ECB Bancorp, Inc. operating as a holding company for Everett Co-operative Bank that provides various banking products and services. The company accepts various deposit products, including certificate of deposit accounts, IRAs, money market accounts, savings accounts, demand deposit accounts, and interest-bearing and noninterest-bearing checking accounts. It also offers one- to four-family residential real estate, commercial real estate and multifamily real estate, construction and land, commercial, and consumer loans, as well as home equity loans and lines of credit. In addition, the company invests in securities, consisting primarily of U.S. government and federal agency obligations, mortgage-backed securities, and corporate bonds. ECB Bancorp, Inc. was founded in 1890 and is based in Everett, Massachusetts.