Head-To-Head Survey: BankUnited (NYSE:BKU) and Chester Bancorp (OTCMKTS:CNBA)

BankUnited (NYSE:BKU) and Chester Bancorp (OTCMKTS:CNBA) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, profitability, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for BankUnited and Chester Bancorp, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
BankUnited	1	6	4	0	2.27
Chester Bancorp	0	0	0	0	0.00

BankUnited presently has a consensus target price of $43.45, indicating a potential upside of 22.60%. Given BankUnited’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe BankUnited is more favorable than Chester Bancorp.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

99.7% of BankUnited shares are held by institutional investors. 1.2% of BankUnited shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 38.8% of Chester Bancorp shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
BankUnited	11.48%	8.48%	0.66%
Chester Bancorp	N/A	N/A	N/A

Volatility & Risk

BankUnited has a beta of 1.4, suggesting that its stock price is 40% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Chester Bancorp has a beta of -0.02, suggesting that its stock price is 102% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares BankUnited and Chester Bancorp”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
BankUnited	$1.01 billion	2.61	$232.47 million	$3.08	11.51
Chester Bancorp	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

BankUnited has higher revenue and earnings than Chester Bancorp.

Dividends

BankUnited pays an annual dividend of $1.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. Chester Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 15.1%. BankUnited pays out 37.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Summary

BankUnited beats Chester Bancorp on 9 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Chester Bancorp

Chester Bancorp, Inc. operates as the holding company for Chester National Bank that provides various banking products and services to individuals and businesses in Chester, Illinois. It offers checking accounts, such as regular checking, student checking, golden checking, and club checking accounts; savings accounts, including statement savings, Christmas club, and money market accounts; and certificate of deposits and individual retirement accounts. The company also provides loans comprising mortgage, construction, lot, home equity, consumer, and business loans; and reorder check services. It operates two full service offices in Sparta, Illinois; and Perryville, Missouri. Chester Bancorp, Inc. was founded in 1996 and is based in Chester, Illinois.