Kearny Financial (KRNY) Competitors

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

Do institutionals & insiders hold more shares of KRNY or NWBI?

71.0% of Kearny Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 66.3% of Northwest Bancshares shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.6% of Kearny Financial shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of Northwest Bancshares shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Is KRNY or NWBI a better dividend stock?

Kearny Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.7%. Northwest Bancshares pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.3%. Kearny Financial pays out -38.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Northwest Bancshares pays out 101.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Kearny Financial is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Which has higher valuation & earnings, KRNY or NWBI?

Northwest Bancshares has higher revenue and earnings than Kearny Financial. Kearny Financial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Northwest Bancshares, 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
Kearny Financial	$152.16M	2.43	-$86.67M	-$1.13	-5.06
Northwest Bancshares	$520.47M	2.70	$100.28M	$0.79	13.94

Do analysts rate KRNY or NWBI?

Kearny Financial presently has a consensus price target of $7.75, suggesting a potential upside of 35.49%. Northwest Bancshares has a consensus price target of $12.50, suggesting a potential upside of 13.53%. Given Kearny Financial's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Kearny Financial is more favorable than Northwest Bancshares.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Kearny Financial	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50
Northwest Bancshares	1 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.50

Does the media refer more to KRNY or NWBI?

In the previous week, Northwest Bancshares had 3 more articles in the media than Kearny Financial. MarketBeat recorded 5 mentions for Northwest Bancshares and 2 mentions for Kearny Financial. Kearny Financial's average media sentiment score of 1.78 beat Northwest Bancshares' score of 0.47 indicating that Kearny Financial is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Kearny Financial	1 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive
Northwest Bancshares	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer KRNY or NWBI?

Northwest Bancshares received 71 more outperform votes than Kearny Financial when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 57.20% of users gave Northwest Bancshares an outperform vote while only 55.92% of users gave Kearny Financial an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Kearny Financial	Outperform Votes 203 55.92%	Underperform Votes 160 44.08%
Northwest Bancshares	Outperform Votes 274 57.20%	Underperform Votes 205 42.80%

Is KRNY or NWBI more profitable?

Northwest Bancshares has a net margin of 13.26% compared to Kearny Financial's net margin of -20.05%. Northwest Bancshares' return on equity of 8.44% beat Kearny Financial's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Kearny Financial	-20.05%	3.31%	0.33%
Northwest Bancshares	13.26%	8.44%	0.92%

Which has more risk & volatility, KRNY or NWBI?

Kearny Financial has a beta of 0.7, meaning that its stock price is 30% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Northwest Bancshares has a beta of 0.56, meaning that its stock price is 44% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Northwest Bancshares beats Kearny Financial on 11 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.