Reviewing Pioneer Bancorp (NASDAQ:PBFS) & Community Heritage Financial (OTCMKTS:CMHF)

Pioneer Bancorp (NASDAQ:PBFS) and Community Heritage Financial (OTCMKTS:CMHF) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Pioneer Bancorp and Community Heritage Financial, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Pioneer Bancorp	0	0	1	0	3.00
Community Heritage Financial	0	0	0	0	0.00

Volatility and Risk

Pioneer Bancorp has a beta of 0.47, meaning that its stock price is 53% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Community Heritage Financial has a beta of 0.31, meaning that its stock price is 69% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Pioneer Bancorp and Community Heritage Financial”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Pioneer Bancorp	$31.81 million	10.43	$6.45 million	$0.87	15.07
Community Heritage Financial	$57.30 million	1.53	$8.12 million	$2.77	10.83

Community Heritage Financial has higher revenue and earnings than Pioneer Bancorp. Community Heritage Financial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Pioneer Bancorp, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Pioneer Bancorp and Community Heritage Financial’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Pioneer Bancorp	18.33%	7.07%	1.07%
Community Heritage Financial	N/A	N/A	N/A

Insider & Institutional Ownership

12.2% of Community Heritage Financial shares are held by institutional investors. 2.5% of Pioneer 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

Pioneer Bancorp beats Community Heritage Financial on 9 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Pioneer Bancorp

Pioneer Bancorp, Inc. operates as a holding company for Pioneer Savings Bank that provides various banking products and services in New York. The company accepts various deposit products, such as demand, savings, and money market accounts, as well as certificates of deposit accounts. Its loan products include commercial real estate, commercial and industrial, commercial construction, residential mortgage lending, consumer loans, and home equity lines of credit. The company also invests in the U.S. governmental securities, fixed rate collateralized mortgage obligations, mortgage-backed securities, fixed-rate investment grade bonds, and equity securities. In addition, the company offers personal and commercial insurance products, including homeowners, automobile, and comprehensive business insurance; employee benefit products and services, such as group health, dental, disability, and life insurance products, as well as defined contribution, defined benefit administration, and human resource management services; and wealth management services comprising investment advice, retirement income planning, estate planning, business succession, and employer retirement planning. The company was founded in 1889 and is based in Albany, New York. Pioneer Bancorp, Inc. operates as a subsidiary of Pioneer Bancorp, MHC.

About Community Heritage Financial

Community Heritage Financial, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Middletown Valley Bank that provides retail and commercial banking services to individuals and businesses in Frederick and Washington counties in Maryland and Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Its primary deposit products include demand, savings, and time deposits, as well as lending products comprise real estate mortgages, commercial business loans, and instalment loans. The company also offers mortgage financing, new home purchases, refinancing, and construction lending in Middletown, Crofton, and Oakland, Maryland. The company was founded in 1908 and is based in Middletown, Maryland.