Reviewing Pioneer Bancorp (NASDAQ:PBFS) and Byline Bancorp (NYSE:BY)

Pioneer Bancorp (NASDAQ:PBFS) and Byline Bancorp (NYSE:BY) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, valuation, risk and earnings.

Risk and Volatility

Pioneer Bancorp has a beta of 0.43, indicating that its stock price is 57% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Byline Bancorp has a beta of 0.72, indicating that its stock price is 28% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Pioneer Bancorp and Byline Bancorp, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Pioneer Bancorp	0	0	1	0	3.00
Byline Bancorp	0	3	3	1	2.71

Byline Bancorp has a consensus target price of $43.50, suggesting a potential upside of 11.09%. Given Byline Bancorp’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Byline Bancorp is more favorable than Pioneer Bancorp.

Profitability

This table compares Pioneer Bancorp and Byline Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Pioneer Bancorp	N/A	2.72%	0.38%
Byline Bancorp	24.06%	12.06%	1.57%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

67.7% of Byline Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.8% of Pioneer Bancorp shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 29.1% of Byline Bancorp shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Pioneer Bancorp and Byline Bancorp”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Pioneer Bancorp	$104.65 million	4.35	$13.42 million	$0.54	33.93
Byline Bancorp	$633.15 million	2.75	$130.05 million	$3.43	11.42

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

Summary

Byline Bancorp beats Pioneer Bancorp on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Pioneer Bancorp

Pioneer Bancorp, Inc. is the holding company for Pioneer Bank, a community bank headquartered in the Capital Region of New York. The bank serves individuals, families and businesses through a network of branches and digital banking services. Its offerings include personal and business deposit accounts, residential mortgages, consumer loans and commercial lending. The bank also provides services such as online and mobile banking to support customers’ everyday financial needs. Pioneer Bank traces its roots to 1889 and primarily serves communities in and around the Capital Region, including the Albany area.

About Byline Bancorp

Byline Bancorp is a bank holding company whose principal subsidiary, Byline Bank, provides banking and financial services to businesses, individuals and organizations. Its offerings include business and personal deposit accounts, lending, cash management and other banking services. The bank focuses on commercial banking, including commercial real estate and small-business lending, and also offers services such as treasury management and wealth management. It serves customers primarily in the Chicago metropolitan area and elsewhere in Illinois, with a presence in Wisconsin.