Analyzing Chester Bancorp (OTCMKTS:CNBA) & MidWestOne Financial Group (NASDAQ:MOFG)

MidWestOne Financial Group (NASDAQ:MOFG) and Chester Bancorp (OTCMKTS:CNBA) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for MidWestOne Financial Group and Chester Bancorp, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
MidWestOne Financial Group	0	4	1	0	2.20
Chester Bancorp	0	0	0	0	0.00

MidWestOne Financial Group presently has a consensus target price of $40.50, indicating a potential downside of 17.87%. Given MidWestOne Financial Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe MidWestOne Financial Group is more favorable than Chester Bancorp.

Risk & Volatility

MidWestOne Financial Group has a beta of 1.07, suggesting that its share price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Chester Bancorp has a beta of 0.47, suggesting that its share price is 53% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares MidWestOne Financial Group and Chester Bancorp”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
MidWestOne Financial Group	$206.03 million	4.94	-$60.29 million	$2.81	17.55
Chester Bancorp	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Chester Bancorp has lower revenue, but higher earnings than MidWestOne Financial Group.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MidWestOne Financial Group	16.66%	10.22%	0.96%
Chester Bancorp	N/A	N/A	N/A

Dividends

MidWestOne Financial Group pays an annual dividend of $0.97 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. Chester Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 16.3%. MidWestOne Financial Group pays out 34.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

65.4% of MidWestOne Financial Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.5% of MidWestOne Financial Group shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 38.8% of Chester Bancorp shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

MidWestOne Financial Group beats Chester Bancorp on 9 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About MidWestOne Financial Group

MidWestOne Financial Group, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for MidWestOne Bank that provides commercial and retail banking products and services to individuals, businesses, governmental units, and institutional customers. It offers range of deposit products, including noninterest bearing and interest bearing demand deposits, savings, money market, and time deposits accounts. The company also provides commercial, real estate, agricultural, credit card, and consumer loans; and financing arrangements, such as brokered deposits, term debt, subordinated debt, and equity. In addition, it offers trust and investment services comprising administering estates, trusts, and conservatorships; property and farm management, investment advisory, retail securities brokerage, financial planning, and custodial services; and licensed brokers services. Further, the company provides online and mobile banking, debit cards, automated teller machines, and safe deposit boxes. MidWestOne Financial Group, Inc. was founded in 1934 and is headquartered in Iowa City, Iowa.

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.