Chester Bancorp (OTCMKTS:CNBA) and BankUnited (NYSE:BKU) Critical Contrast

Chester Bancorp (OTCMKTS:CNBA) and BankUnited (NYSE:BKU) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

99.7% of BankUnited shares are held by institutional investors. 38.8% of Chester Bancorp shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.2% of BankUnited shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Chester Bancorp and BankUnited”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Chester Bancorp	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
BankUnited	$1.01 billion	2.57	$232.47 million	$3.08	11.33

BankUnited has higher revenue and earnings than Chester Bancorp.

Profitability

This table compares Chester Bancorp and BankUnited’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Chester Bancorp	N/A	N/A	N/A
BankUnited	11.48%	8.48%	0.66%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Chester Bancorp and BankUnited, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Chester Bancorp	0	0	0	0	0.00
BankUnited	1	6	4	0	2.27

BankUnited has a consensus price target of $43.18, suggesting a potential upside of 23.76%. Given BankUnited’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe BankUnited is more favorable than Chester Bancorp.

Dividends

Chester Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 15.1%. BankUnited pays an annual dividend of $1.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. BankUnited pays out 37.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Risk and Volatility

Chester Bancorp has a beta of -0.02, indicating that its share price is 102% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, BankUnited has a beta of 1.4, indicating that its share price is 40% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

BankUnited beats Chester Bancorp on 9 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Chester Bancorp

Chester Bancorp, Inc. operates as the holding company for Chester National Bank that provides various banking products and services to individuals and businesses in Chester, Illinois. It offers checking accounts, such as regular checking, student checking, golden checking, and club checking accounts; savings accounts, including statement savings, Christmas club, and money market accounts; and certificate of deposits and individual retirement accounts. The company also provides loans comprising mortgage, construction, lot, home equity, consumer, and business loans; and reorder check services. It operates two full service offices in Sparta, Illinois; and Perryville, Missouri. Chester Bancorp, Inc. was founded in 1996 and is based in Chester, Illinois.

About BankUnited

BankUnited, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for BankUnited, a national banking association that provides a range of banking services in the United States. The company offers deposit products, such as checking, money market deposit, and savings accounts; certificates of deposit; and treasury, commercial payment, and cash management services. Its loans portfolio includes commercial loans, including equipment loans, secured and unsecured lines of credit, formula-based lines of credit, owner-occupied commercial real estate term loans and lines of credit, mortgage warehouse lines, subscription finance facilities, letters of credit, commercial credit cards, small business administration and U.S. department of agriculture product offerings, export-import bank financing products, trade finance, and business acquisition finance credit facilities; commercial real estate loans; residential mortgages; and other consumer loans. The company offers online, mobile, and telephone banking services. It operates through a network of banking centers located in Florida counties and the New York metropolitan area, as well as Dallas, Texas. The company was formerly known as BU Financial Corporation. BankUnited, Inc. was incorporated in 2009 and is headquartered in Miami Lakes, Florida.