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

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares NSTS Bancorp and Sterling Bancorp”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

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

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.

Profitability

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

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

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

Risk & Volatility

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

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.