Kearny Financial (NASDAQ:KRNY) vs. Suruga Bank (OTCMKTS:SUGBY) Head to Head Review

Kearny Financial (NASDAQ:KRNY) and Suruga Bank (OTCMKTS:SUGBY) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, valuation, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability, dividends and earnings.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

71.0% of Kearny Financial shares are held by institutional investors. 7.4% of Kearny Financial shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Kearny Financial and Suruga Bank, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Kearny Financial	0	2	1	0	2.33
Suruga Bank	0	0	0	0	0.00

Kearny Financial presently has a consensus price target of $7.75, suggesting a potential upside of 16.54%. Given Kearny Financial’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Kearny Financial is more favorable than Suruga Bank.

Risk & Volatility

Kearny Financial has a beta of 0.75, indicating that its stock price is 25% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Suruga Bank has a beta of -0.08, indicating that its stock price is 108% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Kearny Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.6%. Suruga Bank pays an annual dividend of $1.70 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. Kearny Financial pays out 104.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Suruga Bank pays out 25.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Kearny Financial and Suruga Bank”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Kearny Financial	$343.53 million	1.25	$26.08 million	$0.42	15.83
Suruga Bank	$598.19 million	2.64	$133.17 million	$6.79	11.78

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

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Kearny Financial	7.59%	3.49%	0.34%
Suruga Bank	19.87%	6.98%	0.60%

About Kearny Financial

Kearny Financial Corp. operates as the holding company for Kearny Bank that provides various banking products and services in the United States. It offers various deposit products, including interest-bearing and non-interest-bearing checking accounts, money market deposit accounts, savings accounts, and certificates of deposit accounts. The company also provides various loans, such as multi-family and nonresidential real estate mortgage loans, commercial term loans and lines of credit, one- to four-family residential mortgage loans, and home equity loans and lines of credit; loans to individuals, builders, or developers for the construction of multi-family residential buildings or commercial real estate, or for the construction or renovation of one- to four-family residences; overdraft lines of credit; and personal loans. In addition, it engages in the investment activities. Kearny Financial Corp. was founded in 1884 and is headquartered in Fairfield, New Jersey.

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.