Contrasting Flushing Financial (NASDAQ:FFIC) & ServisFirst Bancshares (NYSE:SFBS)

Flushing Financial (NASDAQ:FFIC) and ServisFirst Bancshares (NYSE:SFBS) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, risk, profitability, institutional ownership, earnings and dividends.

Risk and Volatility

Flushing Financial has a beta of 0.79, meaning that its stock price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ServisFirst Bancshares has a beta of 0.89, meaning that its stock price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Flushing Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.5%. ServisFirst Bancshares pays an annual dividend of $1.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Flushing Financial pays out 163.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. ServisFirst Bancshares pays out 28.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. ServisFirst Bancshares has raised its dividend for 10 consecutive years.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Flushing Financial and ServisFirst Bancshares”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Flushing Financial	$489.63 million	1.11	$18.88 million	$0.54	29.74
ServisFirst Bancshares	$1.02 billion	4.26	$276.60 million	$5.42	14.62

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Flushing Financial and ServisFirst Bancshares, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Flushing Financial	0	4	0	0	2.00
ServisFirst Bancshares	0	2	2	1	2.80

Flushing Financial currently has a consensus price target of $16.80, indicating a potential upside of 4.61%. ServisFirst Bancshares has a consensus price target of $94.33, indicating a potential upside of 19.07%. Given ServisFirst Bancshares’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe ServisFirst Bancshares is more favorable than Flushing Financial.

Profitability

This table compares Flushing Financial and ServisFirst Bancshares’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Flushing Financial	3.86%	5.95%	0.48%
ServisFirst Bancshares	28.80%	16.95%	1.74%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

67.1% of Flushing Financial shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 67.3% of ServisFirst Bancshares shares are held by institutional investors. 5.7% of Flushing Financial shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 6.7% of ServisFirst Bancshares shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

ServisFirst Bancshares beats Flushing Financial on 16 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Flushing Financial

Flushing Financial Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Flushing Bank that provides banking products and services primarily to consumers, businesses, and governmental units. It offers various deposit products, including checking and savings accounts, money market accounts, non-interest bearing demand accounts, NOW accounts, and certificates of deposit. The company also provides mortgage loans secured by multi-family residential, commercial real estate, one-to-four family mixed-use property, one-to-four family residential property, and commercial business loans; construction loans; small business administration loans and other small business loans; mortgage loan surrogates, such as mortgage-backed securities; and consumer loans, including overdraft lines of credit, as well as the United States government securities, corporate fixed-income securities, and other marketable securities. It operates full-service banking offices in Queens, Nassau, Suffolk, Kings, and New York counties, New York; and an internet branch under the iGObanking and BankPurely brands. Flushing Financial Corporation was founded in 1929 and is based in Uniondale, New York.

About ServisFirst Bancshares

ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for ServisFirst Bank that provides various banking services to individual and corporate customers. It accepts demand, time, savings, and other deposits; checking, money market, and IRA accounts; and certificates of deposit. The company's loan products include commercial lending products, including seasonal, bridge, and term loans for working capital, expansion of the business, acquisition of property, and plant and equipment, as well as commercial lines of credit; commercial real estate loans, construction and development loans, and residential real estate loans; and consumer loans, such as home equity loans, vehicle financing, loans secured by deposits, and secured and unsecured personal loans. It also offers other banking products and services comprising telephone and mobile banking, Internet banking, direct deposit, traveler's checks, safe deposit boxes, attorney trust accounts, automatic account transfers, automated teller machines, and debit and credit card systems; treasury and cash management services; wire transfer, night depository, banking-by-mail, and remote capture services; and correspondent banking services to other financial institutions. In addition, the company holds and manages participations in residential mortgages and commercial real estate loans originated by ServisFirst Bank in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee. The company was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama.