ESSA Bancorp (ESSA) Competitors

Capitol Federal Financial (NASDAQ:CFFN) and ESSA Bancorp (NASDAQ:ESSA) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, risk, profitability, institutional ownership, community ranking, analyst recommendations, dividends, media sentiment and earnings.

Do institutionals & insiders have more ownership in CFFN or ESSA?

88.5% of Capitol Federal Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 54.2% of ESSA Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.2% of Capitol Federal Financial shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.5% of ESSA Bancorp shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Which has stronger valuation and earnings, CFFN or ESSA?

Capitol Federal Financial has higher revenue and earnings than ESSA Bancorp. ESSA Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Capitol Federal Financial, 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
Capitol Federal Financial	$382.09M	2.04	$38.01M	$0.39	15.06
ESSA Bancorp	$65.86M	3.24	$16.99M	$1.74	12.07

Do analysts recommend CFFN or ESSA?

Capitol Federal Financial currently has a consensus target price of $6.50, suggesting a potential upside of 10.64%. Given Capitol Federal Financial's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Capitol Federal Financial is more favorable than ESSA Bancorp.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Capitol Federal Financial	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00
ESSA Bancorp	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00

Which has more risk & volatility, CFFN or ESSA?

Capitol Federal Financial has a beta of 0.5, suggesting that its share price is 50% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ESSA Bancorp has a beta of 0.4, suggesting that its share price is 60% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is CFFN or ESSA a better dividend stock?

Capitol Federal Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.34 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.8%. ESSA Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. Capitol Federal Financial pays out 87.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. ESSA Bancorp pays out 34.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Does the media prefer CFFN or ESSA?

In the previous week, Capitol Federal Financial and Capitol Federal Financial both had 1 articles in the media. Capitol Federal Financial's average media sentiment score of 0.30 beat ESSA Bancorp's score of 0.00 indicating that Capitol Federal Financial is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Capitol Federal Financial	0 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
ESSA Bancorp	0 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Does the MarketBeat Community favor CFFN or ESSA?

Capitol Federal Financial received 100 more outperform votes than ESSA Bancorp when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 57.42% of users gave ESSA Bancorp an outperform vote while only 53.58% of users gave Capitol Federal Financial an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Capitol Federal Financial	Outperform Votes 247 53.58%	Underperform Votes 214 46.42%
ESSA Bancorp	Outperform Votes 147 57.42%	Underperform Votes 109 42.58%

Is CFFN or ESSA more profitable?

ESSA Bancorp has a net margin of 14.83% compared to Capitol Federal Financial's net margin of 12.67%. ESSA Bancorp's return on equity of 7.27% beat Capitol Federal Financial's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Capitol Federal Financial	12.67%	4.96%	0.53%
ESSA Bancorp	14.83%	7.27%	0.75%

Summary

Capitol Federal Financial beats ESSA Bancorp on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.