Analyzing Byline Bancorp (NYSE:BY) & Harleysville Savings Financial (OTCMKTS:HARL)

Harleysville Savings Financial (OTCMKTS:HARL) and Byline Bancorp (NYSE:BY) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation and risk.

Dividends

Harleysville Savings Financial pays an annual dividend of $1.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.2%. Byline Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Harleysville Savings Financial pays out 50.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Byline Bancorp pays out 16.7% 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. Byline Bancorp has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years.

Profitability

This table compares Harleysville Savings Financial and Byline Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Harleysville Savings Financial	22.63%	11.43%	1.13%
Byline Bancorp	20.54%	11.38%	1.39%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Harleysville Savings Financial and Byline Bancorp, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Harleysville Savings Financial	0	0	0	0	0.00
Byline Bancorp	0	1	2	1	3.00

Byline Bancorp has a consensus price target of $33.67, indicating a potential upside of 2.31%. Given Byline Bancorp’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Byline Bancorp is more favorable than Harleysville Savings Financial.

Volatility & Risk

Harleysville Savings Financial has a beta of 0.25, indicating that its stock price is 75% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Byline Bancorp has a beta of 0.87, indicating that its stock price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

1.2% of Harleysville Savings Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 67.7% of Byline Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 14.5% of Harleysville Savings Financial shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 28.8% of Byline Bancorp shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Harleysville Savings Financial and Byline Bancorp”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Harleysville Savings Financial	$43.61 million	2.19	$9.53 million	$2.80	9.55
Byline Bancorp	$633.15 million	2.38	$130.05 million	$2.88	11.43

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

Summary

Byline Bancorp beats Harleysville Savings Financial on 15 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Harleysville Savings Financial

Harleysville Financial Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Harleysville Bank that provides various banking products and services in Pennsylvania. The company offers various deposit products, including savings, money market, and checking accounts, as well as certificates of deposits. It also provides consumer loans, including residential mortgages, savings account loans, and home equity line of credit, construction, and non-real estate consumer loans; and commercial loans, such as commercial mortgages, line of credit, and commercial business loans. In addition, the company offers online banking and bill payment, mobile and telephone banking, remote deposit, debit cards, automated clearing house processing, sweep accounts, zero balance accounts, employee services, and other cash management services. Further, it provides investment services, such as financial consultation, cash and wealth management, education planning, investment strategy, insurance, retirement and estate planning, financial and goal planning, and asset allocation services, as well as offers investment products, such as fixed and variable annuities, mutual funds, life insurances, stocks and bonds, tax-advantaged investments, long-term care insurances, disability insurances, retirement plans/individual retirement accounts, wrap accounts, and unit investment trusts. Its primary market area includes Montgomery County and Bucks County. The company was formerly known as Harleysville Savings Financial Corporation and changed its name to Harleysville Financial Corporation in May 2017. Harleysville Financial Corporation was founded in 1915 and is headquartered in Harleysville, Pennsylvania.

About Byline Bancorp

Byline Bancorp, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Byline Bank that provides various banking products and services for small and medium sized businesses, commercial real estate and financial sponsors, and consumers in the United States. It offers various retail deposit products, including non-interest-bearing accounts, money market demand accounts, savings accounts, interest-bearing checking accounts, and time deposits; ATM and debit cards; and online, mobile, and text banking services, as well as commercial deposits. The company also provides term loans, revolving lines of credit, and construction financing services; senior secured financing solutions to private equity backed lower middle market companies; small business administration and united states department of agriculture loans; and treasury management products and services. In addition, it offers financing solutions for equipment vendors and their end users; syndication services; and investment, trust, and wealth management services that include fiduciary and executor services, financial planning solutions, investment advisory services, and private banking services for foundations and endowments, and high net worth individuals. The company was formerly known as Metropolitan Bank Group, Inc. and changed its name to Byline Bancorp, Inc. in 2015. Byline Bancorp, Inc. was founded in 1914 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.