Reviewing Suruga Bank (OTCMKTS:SUGBY) & Timberland Bancorp (NASDAQ:TSBK)

Insider and Institutional Ownership

65.5% of Timberland Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 3.7% of Timberland Bancorp shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Suruga Bank and Timberland Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Suruga Bank	19.87%	7.07%	0.61%
Timberland Bancorp	24.19%	10.79%	1.40%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Suruga Bank and Timberland Bancorp”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Suruga Bank	$598.19 million	2.64	$133.17 million	$6.79	11.78
Timberland Bancorp	$105.96 million	2.46	$24.28 million	$3.40	9.71

Suruga Bank has higher revenue and earnings than Timberland Bancorp. Timberland Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Suruga Bank, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

Suruga Bank pays an annual dividend of $1.70 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. Timberland Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.2%. Suruga Bank pays out 25.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Timberland Bancorp pays out 30.6% 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. Timberland Bancorp has increased its dividend for 13 consecutive years. Timberland Bancorp is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Volatility & Risk

Suruga Bank has a beta of -0.07, meaning that its stock price is 107% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Timberland Bancorp has a beta of 0.51, meaning that its stock price is 49% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Timberland Bancorp beats Suruga Bank on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Suruga Bank

Suruga Bank Ltd. provides various banking and financial products and services to individuals and corporate customers in Japan. The company offers deposit products, such as time, ordinary, savings, foreign currency, and other deposits, as well as current and general accounts; card, housing, second house, startup, and business up term loans, as well as loans by purpose; credit and debit cards; overdrafts; and other financing products. It also provides investment trust, public bond, pension contribution, insurance, inheritance/trust, lottery, foreign currency, pay-easy, web direct, safe deposit box, external linkage, foreign remittance, fund management, e-combination, payment, nursing care/medical care/dispensing compensation receivable factoring, mortgage, and Internet and telephone banking services. In addition, the company offers staffing, money lending, guarantee, printing, leasing, and agency services. The company was incorporated in 1895 and is headquartered in Numazu, Japan.

About Timberland Bancorp

Timberland Bancorp, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Timberland Bank that provides various community banking services in Washington. It offers various deposit products, including money market deposit, checking, and regular savings accounts, as well as certificates of deposit. The company also provides one-to four-family residential, multi-family, and commercial real estate loans; and construction lending products, such as custom and owner/builder, speculative one- to four-family, commercial, multi-family, land development, and land development. In addition, it offers consumer loans comprising home equity lines of credit and second mortgage loans, automobile loans, boat loans, motorcycle loans, recreational vehicle loans, savings account loans, and unsecured loans; and commercial business loans. Timberland Bancorp, Inc. was founded in 1915 and is headquartered in Hoquiam, Washington.