Critical Comparison: ECB Bancorp (ECBK) & Its Competitors

ECB Bancorp (NASDAQ:ECBK) is one of 919 publicly-traded companies in the “Banks” industry, but how does it contrast to its competitors? We will compare ECB Bancorp to related businesses based on the strength of its profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, risk, earnings, institutional ownership and dividends.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares ECB Bancorp and its competitors top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
ECB Bancorp	$79.51 million	$7.77 million	15.66
ECB Bancorp Competitors	$32.38 billion	$2.42 billion	21.06

ECB Bancorp’s competitors have higher revenue and earnings than ECB Bancorp. ECB Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Volatility & Risk

ECB Bancorp has a beta of 0.44, meaning that its stock price is 56% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ECB Bancorp’s competitors have a beta of 0.61, meaning that their average stock price is 39% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for ECB Bancorp and its competitors, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ECB Bancorp	0	0	0	1	4.00
ECB Bancorp Competitors	7483	30220	27793	1473	2.35

As a group, “Banks” companies have a potential upside of 16.79%. Given ECB Bancorp’s competitors higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe ECB Bancorp has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Profitability

This table compares ECB Bancorp and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ECB Bancorp	13.19%	6.55%	0.70%
ECB Bancorp Competitors	15.65%	9.44%	0.93%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

30.3% of ECB Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 48.0% of shares of all “Banks” companies are held by institutional investors. 10.4% of ECB Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 9.7% of shares of all “Banks” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

ECB Bancorp competitors beat ECB Bancorp on 10 of the 13 factors compared.

ECB Bancorp Company Profile

ECB Bancorp, Inc. operating as a holding company for Everett Co-operative Bank that provides various banking products and services. The company accepts various deposit products, including certificate of deposit accounts, IRAs, money market accounts, savings accounts, demand deposit accounts, and interest-bearing and noninterest-bearing checking accounts. It also offers one- to four-family residential real estate, commercial real estate and multifamily real estate, construction and land, commercial, and consumer loans, as well as home equity loans and lines of credit. In addition, the company invests in securities, consisting primarily of U.S. government and federal agency obligations, mortgage-backed securities, and corporate bonds. ECB Bancorp, Inc. was founded in 1890 and is based in Everett, Massachusetts.