Equitable Financial (OTCMKTS:EQFN) & First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) Critical Analysis

Equitable Financial (OTCMKTS:EQFN) and First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Volatility and Risk

Equitable Financial has a beta of 0.09, indicating that its stock price is 91% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, First Busey has a beta of 0.79, indicating that its stock price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Equitable Financial and First Busey’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Equitable Financial	9.70%	6.57%	0.64%
First Busey	11.00%	9.05%	1.11%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Equitable Financial and First Busey, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Equitable Financial	0	0	0	0	0.00
First Busey	0	4	3	0	2.43

First Busey has a consensus target price of $26.33, suggesting a potential upside of 9.40%. Given First Busey’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe First Busey is more favorable than Equitable Financial.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Equitable Financial and First Busey”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Equitable Financial	$33.95 million	1.12	$3.44 million	$1.31	11.73
First Busey	$663.36 million	3.21	$113.69 million	$1.15	20.93

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

7.2% of Equitable Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 56.5% of First Busey shares are owned by institutional investors. 11.3% of Equitable Financial shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.9% of First Busey shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

First Busey beats Equitable Financial on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Equitable Financial

Equitable Financial Corp. operates as the holding company for Equitable Bank that provides various banking products and services in Nebraska, the United States. The company offers checking and savings accounts; recorder checks; online and mobile banking; remote deposit capture; voice banking; credit card processing; debit and gift cards; and safe deposit boxes. It also provides home, home equity, auto, personal, real estate and construction, operating lines of credit, small business administration, and agricultural loans, as well as equipment financing. In addition, the company offers foreign currency and exchanges; financial planning; wealth management; investment advisory; and retirement services. It operates through branches located in Grand Island, North Platte, and Omaha. The company was founded in 1882 and is headquartered in Grand Island, Nebraska.

About First Busey

First Busey Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Busey Bank that engages in the provision of retail and commercial banking products and services to individual, corporate, institutional, and governmental customers in the United States. It operates through three segments: Banking, Wealth Management, and FirsTech. The Banking segment provides banking services to individual customers, such as demand and savings deposits, money transfers, safe deposit services, individual retirement accounts and other fiduciary services, automated teller machines, and technology-based networks, as well as loan products, including residential real estate, home equity lines of credit, and consumer loans. This segment also offers banking services to corporate customers, including commercial, commercial real estate, real estate construction, and agricultural loans, as well as cash management services. The Wealth Management segment offers a range of investment and asset management, investment, brokerage, investment strategy consulting, fiduciary, philanthropic advisory, tax preparation, business succession planning, and employee retirement plan services to individuals, businesses, and foundations; and professional farm management services to the agricultural industry. The FirsTech segment provides payment technology solutions comprising online, mobile, and voice-recognition bill payments; money management and credit card networks; direct debit services; lockbox remittance processing for payments made by mail; and walk-in payments, as well as tools to help clients with billing, reconciliation, bill reminders, and treasury services. The company was founded in 1868 and is headquartered in Champaign, Illinois.