Contrasting Columbia Financial (NASDAQ:CLBK) and Moody’s (NYSE:MCO)

Columbia Financial (NASDAQ:CLBK) and Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, institutional ownership and profitability.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Columbia Financial and Moody’s”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Columbia Financial	$508.02 million	3.79	$51.77 million	$0.51	36.16
Moody’s	$7.72 billion	10.27	$2.06 billion	$13.68	32.69

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

12.7% of Columbia Financial shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.1% of Moody’s shares are held by institutional investors. 3.5% of Columbia Financial shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Moody’s shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Columbia Financial and Moody’s’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Columbia Financial	10.19%	4.73%	0.49%
Moody’s	31.86%	66.01%	17.38%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Columbia Financial and Moody’s, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Columbia Financial	1	1	0	0	1.50
Moody’s	0	5	12	1	2.78

Columbia Financial presently has a consensus price target of $17.00, suggesting a potential downside of 7.81%. Moody’s has a consensus price target of $553.75, suggesting a potential upside of 23.81%. Given Moody’s’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Moody’s is more favorable than Columbia Financial.

Volatility and Risk

Columbia Financial has a beta of 0.23, indicating that its share price is 77% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Moody’s has a beta of 1.44, indicating that its share price is 44% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Moody’s beats Columbia Financial on 13 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Columbia Financial

Columbia Financial, Inc., a bank holding company, provides various financial services to businesses and consumers in the United States. Its deposit products include checking, interest-earning checking products and municipal, savings and club deposits, and money market accounts, as well as certificates of deposit. The company also provides various loans, including multifamily and commercial real estate loans, commercial business loans, one-to-four family residential loans, construction loans, home equity loans and advances, and other consumer loans, such as automobiles and personal loans, as well as unsecured and overdraft lines of credit. In addition, it offers title insurance products; wealth management services; and cash management services comprising remote deposit, lockbox service, sweep accounts, and escrow services. The company operates full-service banking offices in New Jersey; and branch offices in Freehold, New Jersey. Columbia Financial, Inc. was founded in 1926 and is based in Fair Lawn, New Jersey. Columbia Financial, Inc. is a subsidiary of Columbia Bank MHC.

About Moody’s

Moody’s Corporation operates as an integrated risk assessment firm worldwide. It operates in two segments, Moody’s Analytics and Moody’s Investors Services. The Moody’s Analytics segment develops a range of products and services that support the risk management activities of institutional participants in financial markets. It also offers credit research, credit models and analytics, economics data and models, and structured finance solutions; data sets on companies and securities; and SaaS solutions supporting banking, insurance, and know your customer workflows. The Moody’s Investors Service segment publishes credit ratings and provides assessment services on various debt obligations, programs and facilities, and entities that issue such obligations, such as various corporate, financial institution, and governmental obligations, as well as structured finance securities. The company was formerly known as Dun and Bradstreet Company and changed its name to Moody’s Corporation in September 2000. Moody’s Corporation was founded in 1900 and is headquartered in New York, New York.