Contrasting NSTS Bancorp (NASDAQ:NSTS) and Sterling Bancorp (NASDAQ:SBT)

Profitability

This table compares Sterling Bancorp and NSTS Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sterling Bancorp	4.45%	1.83%	0.25%
NSTS Bancorp	-48.24%	-5.83%	-1.71%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

26.4% of Sterling Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 23.7% of NSTS Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 1.8% of Sterling Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 4.6% of NSTS Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Sterling Bancorp and NSTS Bancorp”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Sterling Bancorp	$59.26 million	4.20	$7.41 million	$0.13	36.62
NSTS Bancorp	$6.26 million	9.88	-$3.96 million	($0.90)	-13.06

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

Volatility & Risk

Sterling Bancorp has a beta of 0.52, meaning that its stock price is 48% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, NSTS Bancorp has a beta of 0.07, meaning that its stock price is 93% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Sterling Bancorp beats NSTS Bancorp on 9 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Sterling Bancorp

Sterling Bancorp, Inc. is a unitary thrift holding company. Its wholly owned subsidiary, Sterling Bank and Trust, F.S.B., has primary branch operations in San Francisco and Los Angeles, California and New York City, and a loan production office in Seattle, Washington. Sterling offers a broad range of loan products to the residential and commercial markets, as well as retail and business banking services. Sterling also has an operations center and a branch in Southfield, Michigan. Sterling was named as the top performing community bank in the United States with total assets between $1 billion and $10 billion in 2017 by SNL/S&P Global Market Intelligence.

About NSTS Bancorp

NSTS Bancorp, Inc. operates as a savings and loan holding company for North Shore Trust and Savings that provides banking products and services in Illinois. The company offers interest-bearing and noninterest-bearing checking, money market, savings, and time deposit accounts; and one- to four-family residential mortgage, multi-family and commercial real estate mortgage, construction, home equity, and consumer loans. It operates through full-service banking offices in Lake County, Illinois; and one loan production office in Chicago. The company was founded in 1921 and is headquartered in Waukegan, Illinois.