1st Colonial Bancorp (OTCMKTS:FCOB) & BankUnited (NYSE:BKU) Critical Review

1st Colonial Bancorp (OTCMKTS:FCOB) and BankUnited (NYSE:BKU) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, valuation, analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership and dividends.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

13.4% of 1st Colonial Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 99.7% of BankUnited shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.0% of BankUnited shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares 1st Colonial Bancorp and BankUnited”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
1st Colonial Bancorp	$49.61 million	2.04	$7.30 million	$1.48	13.51
BankUnited	$1.90 billion	1.74	$268.35 million	$3.65	12.73

BankUnited has higher revenue and earnings than 1st Colonial Bancorp. BankUnited is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than 1st Colonial Bancorp, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility & Risk

1st Colonial Bancorp has a beta of 0.02, meaning that its share price is 98% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, BankUnited has a beta of 1.18, meaning that its share price is 18% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for 1st Colonial Bancorp and BankUnited, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
1st Colonial Bancorp	0	0	0	0	0.00
BankUnited	3	4	6	1	2.36

BankUnited has a consensus target price of $51.64, indicating a potential upside of 11.09%. Given BankUnited’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe BankUnited is more favorable than 1st Colonial Bancorp.

Profitability

This table compares 1st Colonial Bancorp and BankUnited’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
1st Colonial Bancorp	14.71%	10.87%	1.04%
BankUnited	14.76%	9.13%	0.79%

Summary

BankUnited beats 1st Colonial Bancorp on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About 1st Colonial Bancorp

1st Colonial Bancorp, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for 1st Colonial Community Bank that provides a range of business and consumer financial services in New Jersey. The company offers various deposit products, including savings accounts, money market accounts, certificates of deposit, club accounts, and business and personal checking accounts. It also provides home equity loans, home equity lines of credit, personal and vehicle loans, residential and commercial mortgages, construction loans, business lines of credit, equipment and vehicle financing, real estate loans, working capital line of credit, and business acquisition loans, as well as small business administration loans. In addition, the company offers cash management services comprising remote deposit capture, ACH/wire transfer, night deposit drop, and merchant services; safe deposit boxes; and coin counting, online and mobile banking, debit card, and ATM services. The company was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Mount Laurel, New Jersey.

About BankUnited

BankUnited, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for BankUnited, a national banking association that provides a range of banking services in the United States. The company offers deposit products, such as checking, money market deposit, and savings accounts; certificates of deposit; and treasury, commercial payment, and cash management services. Its loans portfolio includes commercial loans, including equipment loans, secured and unsecured lines of credit, formula-based lines of credit, owner-occupied commercial real estate term loans and lines of credit, mortgage warehouse lines, subscription finance facilities, letters of credit, commercial credit cards, small business administration and U.S. department of agriculture product offerings, export-import bank financing products, trade finance, and business acquisition finance credit facilities; commercial real estate loans; residential mortgages; and other consumer loans. The company offers online, mobile, and telephone banking services. It operates through a network of banking centers located in Florida counties and the New York metropolitan area, as well as Dallas, Texas. The company was formerly known as BU Financial Corporation. BankUnited, Inc. was incorporated in 2009 and is headquartered in Miami Lakes, Florida.