Critical Survey: SR Bancorp (NASDAQ:SRBK) versus Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB)

Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE:BHLB) and SR Bancorp (NASDAQ:SRBK) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and earnings.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Berkshire Hills Bancorp and SR Bancorp’s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Berkshire Hills Bancorp	$619.08 million	1.91	$69.60 million	$0.50	54.68
SR Bancorp	$26.52 million	3.41	N/A	N/A	N/A

Berkshire Hills Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than SR Bancorp.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

83.1% of Berkshire Hills Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 24.7% of SR Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of Berkshire Hills 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.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Berkshire Hills Bancorp and SR Bancorp, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Berkshire Hills Bancorp	0	4	1	0	2.20
SR Bancorp	0	0	0	0	N/A

Berkshire Hills Bancorp presently has a consensus target price of $26.50, suggesting a potential downside of 3.07%. Given Berkshire Hills Bancorp’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Berkshire Hills Bancorp is more favorable than SR Bancorp.

Profitability

This table compares Berkshire Hills Bancorp and SR Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Berkshire Hills Bancorp	3.37%	8.61%	0.70%
SR Bancorp	N/A	-4.55%	-0.84%

Summary

Berkshire Hills Bancorp beats SR Bancorp on 8 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Berkshire Hills Bancorp

Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Berkshire Bank that provides various banking products and services in the United States. The company provides various deposit accounts, including demand deposit, interest-bearing checking, regular savings, money market savings, time certificates of deposit, and retirement deposit accounts. It offers loans, such as commercial real estate, commercial and industrial, residential mortgage, and consumer loans. In addition, the company provides wealth management services comprising investment management, trust administration, tax return preparation, and financial planning; and investment products and brokerage services. Further, it offers commercial cash management, online banking and mobile banking, small business banking, and asset based lending services; and debit cards and other electronic fee producing payment services to transaction account customers. It serves its products to personal, commercial, non-profit, and municipal deposit customers. Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. was founded in 1846 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.

About SR Bancorp

SR Bancorp, Inc. operates as the holding company for Somerset Regal Bank that provides customary retail and commercial banking services to individuals, businesses, and local municipalities in the communities of Somerset, Middlesex, Hunterdon, and Essex counties in New Jersey. It offers deposit instruments, including noninterest-bearing demand deposits, interest-bearing demand accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, and certificates of deposit. The company also provides loans comprising one- to four family-residential mortgage loans, home equity loans and lines of credit, unsecured personal loans, and rehabilitation loans; and bill payment services. In addition, it is involved in the investment activities. The company was founded in 1887 and is headquartered in Bound Brook, New Jersey.