Head to Head Comparison: Southern Missouri Bancorp (NASDAQ:SMBC) and Suruga Bank (OTCMKTS:SUGBY)

Southern Missouri Bancorp (NASDAQ:SMBC) and Suruga Bank (OTCMKTS:SUGBY) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, profitability, valuation and risk.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

49.5% of Southern Missouri Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 15.8% of Southern Missouri Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk & Volatility

Southern Missouri Bancorp has a beta of 1.05, suggesting that its share price is 5% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Suruga Bank has a beta of -0.09, suggesting that its share price is 109% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Southern Missouri Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. Suruga Bank pays an annual dividend of $1.70 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. Southern Missouri Bancorp pays out 18.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Suruga Bank pays out 18.4% 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. Southern Missouri Bancorp has raised its dividend for 13 consecutive years.

Profitability

This table compares Southern Missouri Bancorp and Suruga Bank’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Southern Missouri Bancorp	19.86%	11.74%	1.25%
Suruga Bank	24.79%	8.96%	0.77%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Southern Missouri Bancorp and Suruga Bank, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Southern Missouri Bancorp	0	3	1	0	2.25
Suruga Bank	0	0	0	0	0.00

Southern Missouri Bancorp currently has a consensus price target of $62.83, indicating a potential upside of 13.13%. Given Southern Missouri Bancorp’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Southern Missouri Bancorp is more favorable than Suruga Bank.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Southern Missouri Bancorp and Suruga Bank”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Southern Missouri Bancorp	$187.76 million	3.31	$58.58 million	$5.46	10.17
Suruga Bank	$598.19 million	2.64	$133.17 million	$9.26	8.64

Suruga Bank has higher revenue and earnings than Southern Missouri Bancorp. Suruga Bank is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Southern Missouri Bancorp, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Southern Missouri Bancorp beats Suruga Bank on 12 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Southern Missouri Bancorp

Southern Missouri Bancorp, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Southern Bank that provides banking and financial services to individuals and corporate customers in the United States. The company offers deposits products, including interest-bearing and noninterest-bearing transaction accounts, saving accounts, certificates of deposit, retirement savings plans, and money market deposit accounts. It also provides loans, such as residential mortgage, commercial real estate, construction, and commercial business loans; and consumer loans comprising home equity, direct and indirect automobile loans, second mortgages, mobile home loans, and loans secured by deposits. In addition, the company offers fiduciary and investment management services; commercial and consumer insurance; online and mobile banking services; and debit or credit cards. The company was founded in 1887 and is headquartered in Poplar Bluff, Missouri.

About Suruga Bank

Suruga Bank Ltd. provides various banking and financial products and services to individuals and corporate customers in Japan. The company offers deposit products, such as time, ordinary, savings, foreign currency, and other deposits, as well as current and general accounts; card, housing, second house, startup, and business up term loans, as well as loans by purpose; credit and debit cards; overdrafts; and other financing products. It also provides investment trust, public bond, pension contribution, insurance, inheritance/trust, lottery, foreign currency, pay-easy, web direct, safe deposit box, external linkage, foreign remittance, fund management, e-combination, payment, nursing care/medical care/dispensing compensation receivable factoring, mortgage, and Internet and telephone banking services. In addition, the company offers staffing, money lending, guarantee, printing, leasing, and agency services. The company was incorporated in 1895 and is headquartered in Numazu, Japan.