Hanover Bancorp (NASDAQ:HNVR) versus Columbia Banking System (NASDAQ:COLB) Financial Comparison

Hanover Bancorp (NASDAQ:HNVR) and Columbia Banking System (NASDAQ:COLB) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk, earnings, dividends and valuation.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

15.0% of Hanover Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.5% of Columbia Banking System shares are held by institutional investors. 24.8% of Hanover Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of Columbia Banking System shares are held by 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.

Volatility & Risk

Hanover Bancorp has a beta of -0.04, indicating that its share price is 104% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Columbia Banking System has a beta of 0.67, indicating that its share price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Hanover Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Columbia Banking System pays an annual dividend of $1.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.1%. Hanover Bancorp pays out 24.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Columbia Banking System pays out 62.3% 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.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Hanover Bancorp and Columbia Banking System, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Hanover Bancorp	0	1	1	0	2.50
Columbia Banking System	0	9	4	0	2.31

Hanover Bancorp currently has a consensus price target of $22.00, suggesting a potential downside of 8.33%. Columbia Banking System has a consensus price target of $29.31, suggesting a potential upside of 4.15%. Given Columbia Banking System’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Columbia Banking System is more favorable than Hanover Bancorp.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Hanover Bancorp and Columbia Banking System”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Hanover Bancorp	$113.89 million	1.51	$3.52 million	$1.65	14.55
Columbia Banking System	$2.74 billion	2.15	$348.71 million	$2.31	12.18

Columbia Banking System has higher revenue and earnings than Hanover Bancorp. Columbia Banking System is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Hanover Bancorp, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Hanover Bancorp and Columbia Banking System’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Hanover Bancorp	8.39%	6.77%	0.54%
Columbia Banking System	16.15%	10.13%	0.98%

Summary

Columbia Banking System beats Hanover Bancorp on 12 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Hanover Bancorp

Hanover Bancorp, Inc., a bank holding company for Hanover Community Bank, provides personal and business lending and deposit services to businesses, municipalities, and individuals in the New York metro area. The company offers checking, credit cards, debit cards, money market, savings, government and municipal banking, and professional services, as well as time deposits, including certificate of deposit and individual retirement accounts. It also provides business loans, commercial real estate financing, small business administration, lending directory services, and residential mortgage. In addition, the company offers cash management, online and mobile banking, merchant services, and digital solutions. Its banking offices are located in Nassau, Suffolk, Queens, Kings, New York Counties, New York, Monmouth County, Freehold, and New Jersey. The company was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Mineola, New York.

About Columbia Banking System

Columbia Banking System, Inc. operates as the holding company of Umpqua Bank that provides banking, private banking, mortgage, and other financial services in the United States. The company offers deposit products, including business, non-interest bearing checking, interest-bearing checking and savings, money market, and certificate of deposit accounts; and insured cash sweep and other investment sweep solutions. It also provides commercial lending products, such as commercial lines of credit and term loans, accounts receivable and inventory financing, international trade finance, commercial property loans, multifamily loans, equipment loans, commercial equipment leases, real estate construction loans and permanent financing, and small business administration program financing, as well as capital markets. In addition, the company offers wealth management comprising financial planning, investment, trust, and insurance; treasury management, which includes digital and mobile banking solutions, ACH, wires, positive pay, remote deposit capture, integrated payments, integrated receivables, lockbox, cash vault, real-time payments, commercial card, and foreign exchange and international banking related products, as well as merchant services; and brokerage services, residential real estate loans and consumer loans. It serves its products to corporate, institutional, small business, and individual customers. The company was founded in 1953 and is headquartered in Tacoma, Washington.