Critical Comparison: NewtekOne (NASDAQ:NEWT) versus CNB Financial (NASDAQ:CCNE)

CNB Financial (NASDAQ:CCNE) and NewtekOne (NASDAQ:NEWT) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and risk.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

52.3% of CNB Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 38.4% of NewtekOne shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.9% of CNB Financial shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 5.9% of NewtekOne shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

CNB Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. NewtekOne pays an annual dividend of $0.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.1%. CNB Financial pays out 24.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. NewtekOne pays out 34.2% 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. CNB Financial has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years and NewtekOne has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for CNB Financial and NewtekOne, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CNB Financial	0	2	3	1	2.83
NewtekOne	1	4	1	0	2.00

CNB Financial currently has a consensus target price of $36.75, suggesting a potential upside of 5.27%. NewtekOne has a consensus target price of $16.33, suggesting a potential upside of 31.30%. Given NewtekOne’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe NewtekOne is more favorable than CNB Financial.

Risk and Volatility

CNB Financial has a beta of 0.61, suggesting that its share price is 39% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, NewtekOne has a beta of 1.27, suggesting that its share price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares CNB Financial and NewtekOne”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CNB Financial	$432.51 million	2.39	$66.13 million	$3.11	11.23
NewtekOne	$383.33 million	0.94	$60.51 million	$2.22	5.60

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

Profitability

This table compares CNB Financial and NewtekOne’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CNB Financial	19.37%	12.85%	1.26%
NewtekOne	15.57%	17.97%	2.26%

Summary

CNB Financial beats NewtekOne on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About CNB Financial

CNB Financial Corporation operates as the bank holding company for CNB Bank that provides a range of banking products and services for individual, business, governmental, and institutional customers. The company accepts checking, savings, and time deposit accounts; and offers real estate, commercial, industrial, residential, and consumer loans, as well as various other specialized financial services. It also provides private banking; and wealth and asset management services, including the administration of trusts and estates, retirement plans, and other employee benefit plans, as well as a range of wealth management services. In addition, the company invests in debt and equity securities; sells nonproprietary annuities and other insurance products; and offers small balance unsecured loans and secured loans primarily collateralized by automobiles and equipment, as well as engages in consumer discount loan and finance business. The company was founded in 1865 and is headquartered in Clearfield, Pennsylvania.

About NewtekOne

NewtekOne, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Newtek Bank, National Association that engages in the provision of various business and financial solutions under the Newtek brand name to the small- and medium-sized business market. The company accepts demand, savings, NOW, money market, and time deposits; and provides loans including SBA loans, commercial and industrial loans, and commercial real estate loans. It is also involved in the provision of electronic payment processing services comprising credit and debit card processing services, check approval services, processing equipment, and software, as well as cloud-based Point of Sale systems for a various restaurant, retail, assisted living, taxi cabs, parks, and golf course businesses. In addition, it offers wholesale brokerage insurance agency services; and payroll management, and related payment and tax reporting services to independent business owners. Further, the company provides website hosting, dedicated server hosting, cloud hosting, web design and development, internet marketing, ecommerce, data storage, backup and disaster recovery, and other related services, including consulting and implementing technology solutions for enterprise and commercial clients as well as SMBs. The company was formerly known as Newtek Business Services Corp. and changed its name to NewtekOne, Inc. in January 2023. NewtekOne, Inc. was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida.