Comparing Kearny Financial (NASDAQ:KRNY) & Popular (NASDAQ:BPOP)

Popular (NASDAQ:BPOP) and Kearny Financial (NASDAQ:KRNY) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, dividends, profitability, earnings, institutional ownership, risk and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Popular and Kearny Financial, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Popular	0	0	11	2	3.15
Kearny Financial	0	1	3	0	2.75

Popular presently has a consensus price target of $187.42, indicating a potential upside of 18.15%. Kearny Financial has a consensus price target of $10.75, indicating a potential upside of 16.03%. Given Popular’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Popular is more favorable than Kearny Financial.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

87.3% of Popular shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 71.0% of Kearny Financial shares are held by institutional investors. 2.1% of Popular shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.7% of Kearny Financial shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

Popular has a beta of 0.63, meaning that its share price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Kearny Financial has a beta of 0.65, meaning that its share price is 35% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Popular pays an annual dividend of $3.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Kearny Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.7%. Popular pays out 24.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Kearny Financial pays out 77.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Popular has increased its dividend for 6 consecutive years.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Popular and Kearny Financial”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Popular	$3.20 billion	3.16	$833.16 million	$14.80	10.72
Kearny Financial	$347.14 million	1.73	$36.26 million	$0.57	16.25

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

Profitability

This table compares Popular and Kearny Financial’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Popular	21.37%	15.34%	1.26%
Kearny Financial	10.45%	4.90%	0.49%

Summary

Popular beats Kearny Financial on 14 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Popular

Popular, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides various retail, mortgage, and commercial banking products and services in Puerto Rico, the United States, and the British Virgin Islands. The company provides savings, NOW, money market, and other interest-bearing demand accounts; non-interest bearing demand deposits; and certificates of deposit. It also offers commercial and industrial, commercial multi-family, commercial real estate, and residential mortgage loans; consumer loans, including personal loans, credit cards, automobile loans, home equity lines of credit, and other loans to individual borrowers; construction loans; and lease financing comprising automobile loans/leases. In addition, the company provides investment banking, auto and equipment leasing and financing, broker-dealer, and insurance services; debit cards; and online banking services. Popular, Inc. was founded in 1893 and is headquartered in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico.

About Kearny Financial

Kearny Financial Corp. operates as the holding company for Kearny Bank that provides various banking products and services in the United States. It offers various deposit products, including interest-bearing and non-interest-bearing checking accounts, money market deposit accounts, savings accounts, and certificates of deposit accounts. The company also provides various loans, such as multi-family and nonresidential real estate mortgage loans, commercial term loans and lines of credit, one- to four-family residential mortgage loans, and home equity loans and lines of credit; loans to individuals, builders, or developers for the construction of multi-family residential buildings or commercial real estate, or for the construction or renovation of one- to four-family residences; overdraft lines of credit; and personal loans. In addition, it engages in the investment activities. Kearny Financial Corp. was founded in 1884 and is headquartered in Fairfield, New Jersey.