Comparing Suruga Bank (OTCMKTS:SUGBY) & Northfield Bancorp (NASDAQ:NFBK)

Suruga Bank (OTCMKTS:SUGBY) and Northfield Bancorp (NASDAQ:NFBK) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, institutional ownership, risk, dividends, earnings, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Suruga Bank and Northfield Bancorp, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Suruga Bank	0	0	0	0	0.00
Northfield Bancorp	0	2	1	0	2.33

Northfield Bancorp has a consensus price target of $13.00, indicating a potential upside of 24.64%. Given Northfield Bancorp’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Northfield Bancorp is more favorable than Suruga Bank.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

65.5% of Northfield Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 6.5% of Northfield Bancorp shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Suruga Bank has a beta of -0.08, indicating that its share price is 108% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Northfield Bancorp has a beta of 0.85, indicating that its share price is 15% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Suruga Bank pays an annual dividend of $1.70 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. Northfield Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.0%. Suruga Bank pays out 25.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Northfield Bancorp pays out 53.6% 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.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Suruga Bank	19.87%	6.98%	0.60%
Northfield Bancorp	14.92%	5.20%	0.65%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Suruga Bank and Northfield Bancorp”s revenue, earnings per share 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
Northfield Bancorp	$254.73 million	1.71	$29.94 million	$0.97	10.75

Suruga Bank has higher revenue and earnings than Northfield Bancorp. Northfield 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.

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 Northfield Bancorp

Northfield Bancorp, Inc. (Staten Island, NY) operates as the bank holding company for Northfield Bank that provides various banking products and services primarily to individuals and corporate customers. It accepts various deposits products, including certificates of deposit, passbook, statement, and money market savings accounts; transaction deposit accounts comprising negotiable orders of withdrawal accounts, and interest and non-interest-bearing checking accounts; and brokered deposits. The company also offers various loans comprising multifamily and other commercial real estate loans, construction and land loans, commercial and industrial loans, one-to-four family residential real estate loans, and home equity loans and lines of credit. In addition, it purchases various investment securities, such as mortgage-backed securities and corporate bonds; and deposits funds in other financial institutions, as well as holds mortgage loans, mortgage-backed securities, and other investments. Further, the company provides automated teller machines; telephone, internet, and mobile banking services; and ACH and wire transfers, cash management, positive pay, and remote deposit capture services. It operates full-service banking offices in Staten Island and Brooklyn, New York; and Hunterdon, Middlesex, Mercer, and Union counties, New Jersey. Northfield Bancorp, Inc. (Staten Island, NY) was founded in 1887 and is headquartered in Woodbridge, New Jersey.