Comparing Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ:HBAN) and Chester Bancorp (OTCMKTS:CNBA)

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

Profitability

This table compares Chester Bancorp and Huntington Bancshares’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Chester Bancorp	N/A	N/A	N/A
Huntington Bancshares	17.71%	11.98%	1.11%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Chester Bancorp and Huntington Bancshares, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Chester Bancorp	0	0	0	0	0.00
Huntington Bancshares	1	4	14	1	2.75

Huntington Bancshares has a consensus target price of $20.63, suggesting a potential upside of 35.96%. Given Huntington Bancshares’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Huntington Bancshares is more favorable than Chester Bancorp.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

80.7% of Huntington Bancshares shares are owned by institutional investors. 38.8% of Chester Bancorp shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of Huntington Bancshares shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

Chester Bancorp has a beta of -0.63, meaning that its stock price is 163% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Huntington Bancshares has a beta of 0.95, meaning that its stock price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Chester Bancorp and Huntington Bancshares”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Chester Bancorp	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Huntington Bancshares	$12.49 billion	2.48	$2.21 billion	$1.39	10.91

Huntington Bancshares has higher revenue and earnings than Chester Bancorp.

Dividends

Chester Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 19.2%. Huntington Bancshares pays an annual dividend of $0.62 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.1%. Huntington Bancshares pays out 44.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Summary

Huntington Bancshares beats Chester Bancorp on 10 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Huntington Bancshares

Huntington Bancshares Incorporated operates as the bank holding company for The Huntington National Bank that provides commercial, consumer, and mortgage banking services in the United States. The company offers financial products and services to consumer and business customers, including deposits, lending, payments, mortgage banking, dealer financing, investment management, trust, brokerage, insurance, and other financial products and services. It also provides 24-hour grace, asterisk-free checking, money scout, $50 safety zone, standby cash, early pay, instant access, savings goal getter, and Huntington heads up; digitally powered consumer and business financial solutions to consumer lending, regional banking, branch banking, and wealth management customers; direct and indirect consumer loans, as well as dealer finance loans and deposits; and private banking, wealth management and legacy planning through investment and portfolio management, fiduciary administration and trust, institutional custody, and full-service retail brokerage investment services. The company offers equipment financing, asset-based lending, distribution finance, structured lending, and municipal financing solutions, as well as Huntington ChoicePay. In addition, it offers lending, liquidity, treasury management and other payment services, and capital markets; government and non-profits, healthcare, technology and telecommunications, franchises, financial sponsors, and global services; and corporate risk management, institutional sales and trading, debt and equity issuance, and additional advisory services. The company offers its products through a network of channels, including branches and ATMs, online and mobile banking, and through customer call centers to customers in middle market banking, corporate, specialty, and government banking, asset finance, commercial real estate banking, and capital markets. The company was founded in 1866 and is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio.