Timberland Bancorp (TSBK) Competitors

ESSA Bancorp (NASDAQ:ESSA) and Timberland Bancorp (NASDAQ:TSBK) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, community ranking, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, media sentiment, earnings and risk.

Do analysts rate ESSA or TSBK?

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ESSA Bancorp	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	N/A
Timberland Bancorp	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	N/A

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer ESSA or TSBK?

Timberland Bancorp received 123 more outperform votes than ESSA Bancorp when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 69.23% of users gave Timberland Bancorp an outperform vote while only 58.57% of users gave ESSA Bancorp an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
ESSA Bancorp	Outperform Votes 147 58.57%	Underperform Votes 104 41.43%
Timberland Bancorp	Outperform Votes 270 69.23%	Underperform Votes 120 30.77%

Which has more volatility & risk, ESSA or TSBK?

ESSA Bancorp has a beta of 0.35, indicating that its stock price is 65% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Timberland Bancorp has a beta of 0.79, indicating that its stock price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media prefer ESSA or TSBK?

In the previous week, ESSA Bancorp and ESSA Bancorp both had 1 articles in the media. ESSA Bancorp's average media sentiment score of 1.87 beat Timberland Bancorp's score of 0.96 indicating that Timberland Bancorp is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Overall Sentiment
ESSA Bancorp	Positive
Timberland Bancorp	Very Positive

Is ESSA or TSBK more profitable?

Timberland Bancorp has a net margin of 25.38% compared to Timberland Bancorp's net margin of 16.84%. ESSA Bancorp's return on equity of 10.64% beat Timberland Bancorp's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ESSA Bancorp	16.84%	8.12%	0.81%
Timberland Bancorp	25.38%	10.64%	1.34%

Which has stronger valuation & earnings, ESSA or TSBK?

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

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
ESSA Bancorp	$93.40M	1.87	$18.58M	$1.85	9.31
Timberland Bancorp	$72.19M	2.75	$27.12M	$3.05	8.11

Is ESSA or TSBK a better dividend stock?

ESSA Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. Timberland Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.9%. ESSA Bancorp pays out 32.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Timberland Bancorp pays out 31.5% 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. ESSA Bancorp has increased its dividend for 6 consecutive years and Timberland Bancorp has increased its dividend for 12 consecutive years. Timberland Bancorp is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of ESSA or TSBK?

54.2% of ESSA Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 65.5% of Timberland Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 7.5% of ESSA Bancorp shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.4% of Timberland Bancorp shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Timberland Bancorp beats ESSA Bancorp on 14 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.