First Northwest Bancorp (NASDAQ:FNWB) & Summit State Bank (NASDAQ:SSBI) Critical Survey

Summit State Bank (NASDAQ:SSBI) and First Northwest Bancorp (NASDAQ:FNWB) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership and dividends.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Summit State Bank and First Northwest Bancorp”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Summit State Bank	$58.82 million	1.55	$6.80 million	$1.01	13.36
First Northwest Bancorp	$118.64 million	0.74	-$4.19 million	$0.72	12.93

Summit State Bank has higher earnings, but lower revenue than First Northwest Bancorp. First Northwest Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Summit State Bank, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

66.1% of First Northwest Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 5.5% of First Northwest Bancorp shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Summit State Bank and First Northwest Bancorp, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Summit State Bank	1	0	0	0	1.00
First Northwest Bancorp	1	2	1	0	2.00

First Northwest Bancorp has a consensus price target of $13.50, suggesting a potential upside of 45.01%. Given First Northwest Bancorp’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe First Northwest Bancorp is more favorable than Summit State Bank.

Volatility & Risk

Summit State Bank has a beta of 0.19, indicating that its share price is 81% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, First Northwest Bancorp has a beta of 0.57, indicating that its share price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Summit State Bank and First Northwest Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Summit State Bank	11.55%	N/A	N/A
First Northwest Bancorp	5.35%	4.23%	0.29%

Summary

First Northwest Bancorp beats Summit State Bank on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Summit State Bank

Summit State Bank engages in providing an array of financial services to small and medium-sized businesses, their owners and employees, entrepreneurs, high net worth families, foundations, estates, and individual consumers. It specializes in business services, personal accounts, nonprofit programs, and mobile banking ranging from lending, checking, merchant, eBanking, automated teller machines, equity loans, and others. The company was founded on December 20, 1982 and is headquartered in Santa Rosa, CA.

About First Northwest Bancorp

First Northwest Bancorp operates as a bank holding company for First Fed Bank that provides commercial and consumer banking services to individuals, businesses, and nonprofit organizations in western Washington, the United States. The company accepts various deposit instruments, including checking, money market deposit, savings, and transaction accounts, as well as certificates of deposit. It also originates one- to four-family mortgage loans, commercial and multi-family real estate loans, construction and land loans, and commercial business loans, as well as consumer loans primarily consisting of automobile loans, and home-equity loans and lines of credit. First Northwest Bancorp operates branch offices in Clallam, Jefferson, King, Kitsap, and Whatcom Counties, Washington. First Northwest Bancorp was founded in 1923 and is based in Port Angeles, Washington.