West Bancorporation (NASDAQ:WTBA) and Flushing Financial (NASDAQ:FFIC) Head to Head Review

West Bancorporation (NASDAQ:WTBA) and Flushing Financial (NASDAQ:FFIC) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, profitability and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for West Bancorporation and Flushing Financial, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
West Bancorporation	0	2	0	1	2.67
Flushing Financial	1	0	0	1	2.50

West Bancorporation currently has a consensus price target of $24.00, indicating a potential upside of 9.69%. Given West Bancorporation’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe West Bancorporation is more favorable than Flushing Financial.

Profitability

This table compares West Bancorporation and Flushing Financial’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
West Bancorporation	16.04%	13.40%	0.80%
Flushing Financial	-6.93%	4.98%	0.40%

Volatility & Risk

West Bancorporation has a beta of 0.91, suggesting that its stock price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Flushing Financial has a beta of 0.87, suggesting that its stock price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares West Bancorporation and Flushing Financial”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
West Bancorporation	$92.05 million	4.03	$24.05 million	$1.90	11.52
Flushing Financial	$160.34 million	3.18	-$31.33 million	($1.19)	-12.68

West Bancorporation has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Flushing Financial. Flushing Financial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than West Bancorporation, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

44.3% of West Bancorporation shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 67.1% of Flushing Financial shares are held by institutional investors. 4.6% of West Bancorporation shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 5.7% of Flushing Financial shares are held 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.

Dividends

West Bancorporation pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.6%. Flushing Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.8%. West Bancorporation pays out 52.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Flushing Financial pays out -73.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Flushing Financial is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Summary

West Bancorporation beats Flushing Financial on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About West Bancorporation

West Bancorporation, Inc. operates as the financial holding company provides community banking and trust services to individuals and small- to medium-sized businesses in the United States. It offers deposit services, including checking, savings, and money market accounts, as well as time certificates of deposit. The company also provides loan products comprising commercial real estate loans, construction and land development loans, commercial lines of credit, and commercial term loans; consumer loans, including loans extended to individuals for household, family, and other personal expenditures not secured by real estate; and 1-4 family residential mortgages and home equity loans. In addition, it offers online and mobile banking, treasury management services including cash management, client-generated automated clearing house transactions, remote deposit, and fraud protection services; merchant credit card processing and corporate credit cards; and administration of estates, conservatorships, personal trusts, and agency accounts. The company was founded in 1893 and is headquartered in West Des Moines, Iowa.

About Flushing Financial

Flushing Financial Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Flushing Bank that provides banking products and services primarily to consumers, businesses, and governmental units. It offers various deposit products, including checking and savings accounts, money market accounts, non-interest bearing demand accounts, NOW accounts, and certificates of deposit. The company also provides mortgage loans secured by multi-family residential, commercial real estate, one-to-four family mixed-use property, one-to-four family residential property, and commercial business loans; construction loans; small business administration loans and other small business loans; mortgage loan surrogates, such as mortgage-backed securities; and consumer loans, including overdraft lines of credit, as well as the United States government securities, corporate fixed-income securities, and other marketable securities. It operates full-service banking offices in Queens, Nassau, Suffolk, Kings, and New York counties, New York; and an internet branch under the iGObanking and BankPurely brands. Flushing Financial Corporation was founded in 1929 and is based in Uniondale, New York.