Northeast Community Bancorp (NASDAQ:NECB) and Metropolitan Bank (NYSE:MCB) Head-To-Head Survey

Metropolitan Bank (NYSE:MCB) and Northeast Community Bancorp (NASDAQ:NECB) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, risk, profitability, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Profitability

This table compares Metropolitan Bank and Northeast Community Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Metropolitan Bank	13.68%	10.69%	1.03%
Northeast Community Bancorp	28.09%	14.04%	2.30%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Metropolitan Bank and Northeast Community Bancorp”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Metropolitan Bank	$492.21 million	1.70	$66.69 million	$6.17	13.03
Northeast Community Bancorp	$162.80 million	1.83	$47.07 million	$3.35	6.35

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

79.8% of Metropolitan Bank shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 53.3% of Northeast Community Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 6.1% of Metropolitan Bank shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 6.3% of Northeast Community Bancorp shares are owned by company 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.

Risk and Volatility

Metropolitan Bank has a beta of 1.16, suggesting that its share price is 16% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Northeast Community Bancorp has a beta of 0.47, suggesting that its share price is 53% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Metropolitan Bank and Northeast Community Bancorp, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Metropolitan Bank	0	1	3	0	2.75
Northeast Community Bancorp	0	0	0	0	0.00

Metropolitan Bank presently has a consensus price target of $82.67, suggesting a potential upside of 2.82%. Given Metropolitan Bank’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Metropolitan Bank is more favorable than Northeast Community Bancorp.

Dividends

Metropolitan Bank pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Northeast Community Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. Metropolitan Bank pays out 9.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Northeast Community Bancorp pays out 23.9% 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. Northeast Community Bancorp has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years. Northeast Community Bancorp is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

Metropolitan Bank beats Northeast Community Bancorp on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Metropolitan Bank

Metropolitan Bank Holding Corp. operates as the bank holding company for Metropolitan Commercial Bank that provides a range of business, commercial, and retail banking products and services to small businesses, middle-market enterprises, public entities, and individuals in the New York metropolitan area. The company offers checking, savings, term deposit, money market, demand deposit, and other interest-bearing transaction accounts. It also provides lending products, including commercial real estate, multi-family, construction, and one-to four-family real estate loans; commercial and industrial loans; consumer loans; acquisition and renovation loans; loans to refinance or return borrower equity; loans on owner-occupied properties; working capital lines of credit; trade finance and letters of credit; and term loans. In addition, the company offers cash management services, as well as online and mobile banking, ACH, remote deposit capture, and debit cards. The company was formerly known as Metbank Holding Corp. and changed its name to Metropolitan Bank Holding Corp. in January 2007. Metropolitan Bank Holding Corp. was incorporated in 1997 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

About Northeast Community Bancorp

Northeast Community Bancorp, Inc. operates as the holding company for NorthEast Community Bank that provides financial services for individuals and businesses. It accepts various deposit instruments, including checking accounts, money market accounts, regular savings accounts, and non-interest bearing demand accounts, as well as certificates of deposits. The company also offers construction, commercial and industrial, multifamily and mixed-use real estate, non-residential real estate loans, and consumer loans. In addition, it invests in various types of liquid assets, including U.S. Treasury obligations, municipal securities, deposits at the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York, and certificates of deposit of federally insured institutions, as well as securities of various federal agencies, and of state and municipal governments. Further, the company offers financial planning and investment advisory services; and life insurance products and fixed-rate annuities. It operates full-service branches located in Bronx, New York, Orange, Rockland, and Sullivan Counties in New York and Essex, Middlesex, and Norfolk Counties in Massachusetts; and loan production offices located in White Plains, New York, and New City counties in New York and Danvers, Massachusetts. Northeast Community Bancorp, Inc. was founded in 1934 and is headquartered in White Plains, New York.