Columbia Financial (NASDAQ:CLBK – Get Free Report) and Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD – Get Free Report) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, risk, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations and profitability.
Valuation & Earnings
This table compares Columbia Financial and Applied Digital”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Columbia Financial | $508.02 million | 4.05 | $51.77 million | $0.55 | 35.95 |
| Applied Digital | $144.19 million | 82.01 | -$231.07 million | ($0.74) | -55.92 |
Analyst Recommendations
This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Columbia Financial and Applied Digital, as reported by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Columbia Financial | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2.00 |
| Applied Digital | 2 | 0 | 11 | 3 | 2.94 |
Columbia Financial presently has a consensus target price of $18.50, indicating a potential downside of 6.45%. Applied Digital has a consensus target price of $70.56, indicating a potential upside of 70.51%. Given Applied Digital’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Applied Digital is more favorable than Columbia Financial.
Institutional and Insider Ownership
12.7% of Columbia Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 65.7% of Applied Digital shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.4% of Columbia Financial shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 9.5% of Applied Digital shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Risk & Volatility
Columbia Financial has a beta of 0.25, meaning that its share price is 75% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Applied Digital has a beta of 5.69, meaning that its share price is 469% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Profitability
This table compares Columbia Financial and Applied Digital’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Columbia Financial | 10.91% | 5.12% | 0.54% |
| Applied Digital | -52.84% | -15.91% | -4.62% |
Summary
Applied Digital beats Columbia Financial on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Columbia Financial
Columbia Financial, Inc., a bank holding company, provides various financial services to businesses and consumers in the United States. Its deposit products include checking, interest-earning checking products and municipal, savings and club deposits, and money market accounts, as well as certificates of deposit. The company also provides various loans, including multifamily and commercial real estate loans, commercial business loans, one-to-four family residential loans, construction loans, home equity loans and advances, and other consumer loans, such as automobiles and personal loans, as well as unsecured and overdraft lines of credit. In addition, it offers title insurance products; wealth management services; and cash management services comprising remote deposit, lockbox service, sweep accounts, and escrow services. The company operates full-service banking offices in New Jersey; and branch offices in Freehold, New Jersey. Columbia Financial, Inc. was founded in 1926 and is based in Fair Lawn, New Jersey. Columbia Financial, Inc. is a subsidiary of Columbia Bank MHC.
About Applied Digital
Applied Digital Corporation designs, develops, and operates datacenters in North America. Its datacenters provide digital infrastructure solutions to the high-performance computing industry. The company also provides artificial intelligence cloud services, high performance computing datacenter hosting, and crypto datacenter hosting services. The company was formerly known as Applied Blockchain, Inc. and changed its name to Applied Digital Corporation in November 2022. Applied Digital Corporation is based in Dallas, Texas.
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