Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE: BHLB) and WSFS Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:WSFS) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, earnings, dividends, valuation, profitability and analyst recommendations.
Dividends
Berkshire Hills Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. WSFS Financial Corporation pays an annual dividend of $0.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. Berkshire Hills Bancorp pays out 46.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. WSFS Financial Corporation pays out 12.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. WSFS Financial Corporation has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Berkshire Hills Bancorp and WSFS Financial Corporation, as provided by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Berkshire Hills Bancorp | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 2.40 |
| WSFS Financial Corporation | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3.00 |
Berkshire Hills Bancorp presently has a consensus target price of $35.00, suggesting a potential upside of 3.40%. WSFS Financial Corporation has a consensus target price of $51.33, suggesting a potential upside of 16.01%. Given WSFS Financial Corporation’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe WSFS Financial Corporation is more favorable than Berkshire Hills Bancorp.
Earnings & Valuation
This table compares Berkshire Hills Bancorp and WSFS Financial Corporation’s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | EBITDA | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Berkshire Hills Bancorp | $336.88 million | 4.02 | $72.74 million | $1.82 | 18.60 |
| WSFS Financial Corporation | $307.38 million | 4.52 | $69.12 million | $2.20 | 20.11 |
Berkshire Hills Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than WSFS Financial Corporation. Berkshire Hills Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than WSFS Financial Corporation, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Insider & Institutional Ownership
62.8% of Berkshire Hills Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 78.4% of WSFS Financial Corporation shares are held by institutional investors. 1.7% of Berkshire Hills Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 4.9% of WSFS Financial Corporation 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.
Profitability
This table compares Berkshire Hills Bancorp and WSFS Financial Corporation’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Berkshire Hills Bancorp | 15.03% | 6.93% | 0.85% |
| WSFS Financial Corporation | 19.96% | 10.44% | 1.08% |
Volatility and Risk
Berkshire Hills Bancorp has a beta of 0.63, meaning that its share price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, WSFS Financial Corporation has a beta of 1.19, meaning that its share price is 19% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
WSFS Financial Corporation beats Berkshire Hills Bancorp on 14 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Berkshire Hills Bancorp
Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (Berkshire) is a holding company for Berkshire Bank (the Bank) and Berkshire Insurance Group. Berkshire offers a range of deposit, lending, insurance and wealth management products to retail, commercial, not-for-profit and municipal customers in its market areas. Berkshire product offerings also include retail and commercial electronic banking, commercial cash management and commercial interest rate swaps. The Bank’s loan portfolio consists of commercial loans, which include residential mortgages, commercial real estate, commercial and industrial loans, and consumer loans. The Bank’s securities available for sale include municipal bonds and obligations, mortgage-backed securities, other bonds and obligations, and marketable equity securities. As of December 5, 2016, the Bank had 99 full service branch offices in Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Vermont, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
About WSFS Financial Corporation
WSFS Financial Corporation is a savings and loan holding company. The Company’s subsidiary is Wilmington Savings Fund Society, FSB (WSFS Bank or the Bank), which is the bank and trust company. It operates in three segments: WSFS Bank, Cash Connect and Wealth Management. The WSFS Bank segment provides loans and other financial products to commercial and retail customers. Its Cash Connect segment provides automated teller machine (ATM) services through strategic partnerships with several of the network, manufacturers and service providers in the ATM industry. The Wealth Management segment provides a range of fiduciary, investment management, credit and deposit products to clients. Its banking business is commercial lending funded by customer-generated deposits. It also offers a range of consumer loan products, retail securities and insurance brokerage services. Its subsidiaries include WSFS Wealth Investments, 1832 Holdings, Inc., Monarch and West Capital Management.
Receive News & Ratings for Berkshire Hills Bancorp Inc. Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Berkshire Hills Bancorp Inc. and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.
