Head-To-Head Review: Harleysville Savings Financial (OTCMKTS:HARL) versus BCB Bancorp, Inc. (NJ) (NASDAQ:BCBP)

Harleysville Savings Financial (OTCMKTS:HARL) and BCB Bancorp, Inc. (NJ) (NASDAQ:BCBP) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, profitability, risk and analyst recommendations.

Dividends

Harleysville Savings Financial pays an annual dividend of $1.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.4%. BCB Bancorp, Inc. (NJ) pays an annual dividend of $0.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.0%. Harleysville Savings Financial pays out 55.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. BCB Bancorp, Inc. (NJ) pays out 336.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

1.2% of Harleysville Savings Financial shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 36.0% of BCB Bancorp, Inc. (NJ) shares are held by institutional investors. 14.5% of Harleysville Savings Financial shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 15.9% of BCB Bancorp, Inc. (NJ) shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Harleysville Savings Financial and BCB Bancorp, Inc. (NJ)’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Harleysville Savings Financial	20.64%	9.97%	1.01%
BCB Bancorp, Inc. (NJ)	2.72%	1.76%	0.15%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Harleysville Savings Financial and BCB Bancorp, Inc. (NJ)”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Harleysville Savings Financial	$40.39 million	2.16	$2.05 million	$2.40	10.10
BCB Bancorp, Inc. (NJ)	$196.95 million	0.79	$18.62 million	$0.19	47.89

BCB Bancorp, Inc. (NJ) has higher revenue and earnings than Harleysville Savings Financial. Harleysville Savings Financial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than BCB Bancorp, Inc. (NJ), indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Harleysville Savings Financial and BCB Bancorp, Inc. (NJ), as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Harleysville Savings Financial	0	0	0	0	0.00
BCB Bancorp, Inc. (NJ)	0	2	0	0	2.00

BCB Bancorp, Inc. (NJ) has a consensus price target of $9.50, indicating a potential upside of 4.40%. Given BCB Bancorp, Inc. (NJ)’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe BCB Bancorp, Inc. (NJ) is more favorable than Harleysville Savings Financial.

Volatility & Risk

Harleysville Savings Financial has a beta of 0.2, suggesting that its stock price is 80% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, BCB Bancorp, Inc. (NJ) has a beta of 0.76, suggesting that its stock price is 24% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

BCB Bancorp, Inc. (NJ) beats Harleysville Savings Financial on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Harleysville Savings Financial

Harleysville Financial Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Harleysville Bank that provides various banking products and services in Pennsylvania. The company offers various deposit products, including savings, money market, and checking accounts, as well as certificates of deposits. It also provides consumer loans, including residential mortgages, savings account loans, and home equity line of credit, construction, and non-real estate consumer loans; and commercial loans, such as commercial mortgages, line of credit, and commercial business loans. In addition, the company offers online banking and bill payment, mobile and telephone banking, remote deposit, debit cards, automated clearing house processing, sweep accounts, zero balance accounts, employee services, and other cash management services. Further, it provides investment services, such as financial consultation, cash and wealth management, education planning, investment strategy, insurance, retirement and estate planning, financial and goal planning, and asset allocation services, as well as offers investment products, such as fixed and variable annuities, mutual funds, life insurances, stocks and bonds, tax-advantaged investments, long-term care insurances, disability insurances, retirement plans/individual retirement accounts, wrap accounts, and unit investment trusts. Its primary market area includes Montgomery County and Bucks County. The company was formerly known as Harleysville Savings Financial Corporation and changed its name to Harleysville Financial Corporation in May 2017. Harleysville Financial Corporation was founded in 1915 and is headquartered in Harleysville, Pennsylvania.

About BCB Bancorp, Inc. (NJ)

BCB Bancorp, Inc. operates as a bank holding company for BCB Community Bank that engages in the provision of banking products and services to businesses and individuals in the United States. The company offers insured deposit products, including savings and club accounts, interest and non-interest-bearing demand accounts, money market accounts, certificates of deposit, and individual retirement accounts. It also provides various loan products, such as commercial and multi-family real estate loans, one-to-four family mortgage loans, commercial business loans, construction loans, home equity loans, and consumer loans. In addition, the company offers retail and commercial banking services comprising wire transfer, money order, safe deposit box, night depository, debit card, online and mobile banking, fraud detection, and automated teller services. The company was founded in 2000 and is based in Bayonne, New Jersey.