Critical Analysis: Dime Community Bancshares (NASDAQ:DCOM) and FB Bancorp (NASDAQ:FBLA)

Dime Community Bancshares (NASDAQ:DCOM) and FB Bancorp (NASDAQ:FBLA) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, institutional ownership, risk, earnings, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Dime Community Bancshares and FB Bancorp, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Dime Community Bancshares	0	2	3	1	2.83
FB Bancorp	1	0	0	0	1.00

Dime Community Bancshares currently has a consensus price target of $39.75, suggesting a potential upside of 9.06%. Given Dime Community Bancshares’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Dime Community Bancshares is more favorable than FB Bancorp.

Profitability

This table compares Dime Community Bancshares and FB Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Dime Community Bancshares	15.15%	9.12%	0.83%
FB Bancorp	1.48%	0.97%	0.26%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

75.3% of Dime Community Bancshares shares are owned by institutional investors. 7.4% of Dime Community Bancshares shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 3.9% of FB Bancorp shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Dime Community Bancshares and FB Bancorp”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Dime Community Bancshares	$472.68 million	3.38	$110.68 million	$2.66	13.70
FB Bancorp	$52.14 million	4.62	$1.25 million	$0.07	200.57

Dime Community Bancshares has higher revenue and earnings than FB Bancorp. Dime Community Bancshares is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than FB Bancorp, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk & Volatility

Dime Community Bancshares has a beta of 1.05, indicating that its stock price is 5% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, FB Bancorp has a beta of -0.04, indicating that its stock price is 104% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Dime Community Bancshares beats FB Bancorp on 13 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Dime Community Bancshares

Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. operates as the holding company for Dime Community Bank that engages in the provision of various commercial banking and financial services. The company accepts time, savings, and demand deposits from the businesses, consumers, and local municipalities. It also offers commercial real estate loans; multi-family mortgage loans; residential mortgage loans; letters of credit; secured and unsecured commercial and consumer loans; lines of credit; home equity loans; and construction and land loans. In addition, the company invests in Federal Home Loan Bank, Federal National Mortgage Association, Government National Mortgage Association, and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation mortgage-backed securities, collateralized mortgage obligations, and other asset backed securities; U.S. Treasury securities; New York state and local municipal obligations; U.S. government-sponsored enterprise securities; and corporate bonds. Further, it offers certificate of deposit account registry services and insured cash sweep programs; federal deposit insurance corporation insurance; merchant credit and debit card processing, automated teller machines, cash management services, lockbox processing, online banking services, remote deposit capture, safe deposit boxes, and individual retirement accounts; investment products and services through a third-party broker dealer; and title insurance broker services for small and medium sized businesses, and municipal and consumer relationships. The company was founded in 1910 and is headquartered in Hauppauge, New York.

About FB Bancorp

FB Bancorp Inc. operates as a bank holding company for Fidelity Bank. The Company, through its subsidiaries, provides deposit accounts, mortgages, home equity and consumer loans, credit and debit cards, online and mobile banking, investments and other financial services. FB Bancorp Inc. is based in New Orleans.