Head-To-Head Contrast: Suruga Bank (OTCMKTS:SUGBY) versus Greene County Bancorp (NASDAQ:GCBC)

Suruga Bank (OTCMKTS:SUGBY) and Greene County Bancorp (NASDAQ:GCBC) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, risk and valuation.

Risk & Volatility

Suruga Bank has a beta of -0.03, indicating that its stock price is 103% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Greene County Bancorp has a beta of 0.41, indicating that its stock price is 59% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Suruga Bank pays an annual dividend of $2.09 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. Greene County Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. Suruga Bank pays out 15.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Greene County Bancorp pays out 17.5% 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. Greene County Bancorp has raised its dividend for 11 consecutive years. Suruga Bank is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Profitability

This table compares Suruga Bank and Greene County Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Suruga Bank	33.98%	11.31%	0.99%
Greene County Bancorp	27.28%	15.41%	1.26%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

13.4% of Greene County Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 59.2% of Greene County Bancorp shares are held by company 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 summary of current ratings and price targets for Suruga Bank and Greene County Bancorp, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Suruga Bank	0	0	0	0	0.00
Greene County Bancorp	0	1	0	0	2.00

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Suruga Bank and Greene County Bancorp”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Suruga Bank	$730.15 million	1.87	$230.70 million	$13.12	6.10
Greene County Bancorp	$88.08 million	4.82	$31.14 million	$2.29	10.90

Suruga Bank has higher revenue and earnings than Greene County Bancorp. Suruga Bank is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Greene County Bancorp, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Greene County Bancorp beats Suruga Bank on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Suruga Bank

Suruga Bank Ltd. provides various banking and financial products and services to individuals and corporate customers in Japan. The company offers deposit products, such as time, ordinary, savings, foreign currency, and other deposits, as well as current and general accounts; card, housing, second house, startup, and business up term loans, as well as loans by purpose; credit and debit cards; overdrafts; and other financing products. It also provides investment trust, public bond, pension contribution, insurance, inheritance/trust, lottery, foreign currency, pay-easy, web direct, safe deposit box, external linkage, foreign remittance, fund management, e-combination, payment, nursing care/medical care/dispensing compensation receivable factoring, mortgage, and Internet and telephone banking services. In addition, the company offers staffing, money lending, guarantee, printing, leasing, and agency services. The company was incorporated in 1895 and is headquartered in Numazu, Japan.

About Greene County Bancorp

Greene County Bancorp, Inc. operates as a holding company for The Bank of Greene County that provides various financial services in the United States. The company's deposit products include savings, NOW accounts, money market accounts, certificates of deposit, non-interest bearing checking accounts, and individual retirement accounts. Its loan portfolio consists of residential, construction and land, and multifamily loans; commercial real estate mortgage loans; consumer loans, such as loans on new and used automobiles, personal loans, and home equity loans, as well as other consumer installment loans, including passbook loans, unsecured home improvement loans, recreational vehicle loans, and deposit account overdrafts; and commercial loans. The company was founded in 1889 and is based in Catskill, New York. Greene County Bancorp, Inc. is a subsidiary of Greene County Bancorp, MHC.