Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB – Get Rating) and Northeast Community Bancorp (OTCMKTS:NECB – Get Rating) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, valuation and dividends.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Berkshire Hills Bancorp and Northeast Community Bancorp, as provided by MarketBeat.
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| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score |
| Berkshire Hills Bancorp | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2.00 |
| Northeast Community Bancorp | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3.00 |
Berkshire Hills Bancorp presently has a consensus price target of $28.75, suggesting a potential upside of 2.86%. Northeast Community Bancorp has a consensus price target of $12.50, suggesting a potential downside of 2.04%. Given Berkshire Hills Bancorp's higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Berkshire Hills Bancorp is more favorable than Northeast Community Bancorp.
Earnings & Valuation
This table compares Berkshire Hills Bancorp and Northeast Community Bancorp's top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio |
| Berkshire Hills Bancorp | $472.31 million | 2.70 | $118.66 million | $2.65 | 10.55 |
| Northeast Community Bancorp | $50.76 million | 4.10 | $11.90 million | $0.90 | 14.18 |
Berkshire Hills Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than Northeast Community Bancorp. Berkshire Hills Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Northeast Community Bancorp, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Profitability
This table compares Berkshire Hills Bancorp and Northeast Community Bancorp's net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets |
| Berkshire Hills Bancorp | 28.30% | 8.08% | 0.77% |
| Northeast Community Bancorp | 25.53% | 5.53% | 1.16% |
Volatility & Risk
Berkshire Hills Bancorp has a beta of 1.07, indicating that its stock price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Northeast Community Bancorp has a beta of 0.61, indicating that its stock price is 39% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Dividends
Berkshire Hills Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Northeast Community Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Berkshire Hills Bancorp pays out 18.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Northeast Community Bancorp pays out 26.7% 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.
Insider & Institutional Ownership
80.6% of Berkshire Hills Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 25.8% of Northeast Community Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 0.9% of Berkshire Hills Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.3% of Northeast Community Bancorp shares are held by 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.
Summary
Berkshire Hills Bancorp beats Northeast Community Bancorp on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Berkshire Hills Bancorp
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Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Berkshire Bank that provides various banking products and services. It offers various deposit accounts, including demand deposit, NOW, regular savings, money market savings, time certificates of deposit, and retirement deposit accounts; and loans, such as commercial real estate, commercial and industrial, consumer, and residential mortgage loans. The company also provides wealth management services comprising investment management, trust administration, and financial planning; and investment products, financial planning, and brokerage services. In addition, it offers electronic banking, commercial cash management, online banking, small business banking, asset based lending, and mobile banking services; and debit cards and other electronic fee producing payment services to transaction account customers. The company serves personal, commercial, non-profit, and municipal deposit customers. As of March 14, 2022, it operated 106 full-service branches in Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, and Vermont. The company also has commercial banking offices in Providence, Rhode Island and New Haven, Connecticut. Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. was founded in 1846 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.
About Northeast Community Bancorp
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Northeast Community Bancorp, Inc. operates as the holding company for NorthEast Community Bank that provides financial services for individuals and businesses. It accepts various deposit instruments, including checking accounts, money market accounts, regular savings accounts, and non-interest bearing demand accounts. The company also offers construction, commercial and industrial, multifamily and mixed-use real estate, non-residential real estate loans, and consumer loans. In addition, it invests in various types of liquid assets, including U.S. Treasury obligations, municipal securities, deposits at the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York, and certificates of deposit of federally insured institutions, as well as securities of various federal agencies, and of state and municipal governments. Further, the company offers investment advisory and financial planning services; and life insurance products and fixed-rate annuities. It operates seven full-service branches in New York and three full-service branches in Massachusetts; and loan production offices in White Plains and New City, New York, as well as Danvers, Massachusetts. The company was founded in 1934 and is based in White Plains, New York.
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