Head-To-Head Analysis: BayCom (NASDAQ:BCML) vs. Flushing Financial (NASDAQ:FFIC)

Flushing Financial (NASDAQ:FFIC) and BayCom (NASDAQ:BCML) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, valuation, risk, institutional ownership, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Profitability

This table compares Flushing Financial and BayCom’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Flushing Financial	5.48%	3.75%	0.28%
BayCom	17.22%	7.61%	0.93%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

67.1% of Flushing Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 66.2% of BayCom shares are owned by institutional investors. 6.3% of Flushing Financial shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 7.2% of BayCom shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings for Flushing Financial and BayCom, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Flushing Financial	0	3	1	0	2.25
BayCom	0	0	1	0	3.00

Flushing Financial presently has a consensus target price of $15.50, suggesting a potential downside of 14.74%. BayCom has a consensus target price of $28.00, suggesting a potential upside of 3.55%. Given BayCom’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe BayCom is more favorable than Flushing Financial.

Dividends

Flushing Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.8%. BayCom pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Flushing Financial pays out 101.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. BayCom pays out 19.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Flushing Financial and BayCom”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Flushing Financial	$424.07 million	1.25	$28.66 million	$0.87	20.90
BayCom	$133.31 million	2.26	$27.42 million	$2.10	12.88

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

Risk and Volatility

Flushing Financial has a beta of 0.75, suggesting that its stock price is 25% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, BayCom has a beta of 0.76, suggesting that its stock price is 24% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

BayCom beats Flushing Financial on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Flushing Financial

Flushing Financial Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Flushing Bank that provides banking products and services primarily to consumers, businesses, and governmental units. It offers various deposit products, including checking and savings accounts, money market accounts, non-interest bearing demand accounts, NOW accounts, and certificates of deposit. The company also provides mortgage loans secured by multi-family residential, commercial real estate, one-to-four family mixed-use property, one-to-four family residential property, and commercial business loans; construction loans; small business administration loans and other small business loans; mortgage loan surrogates, such as mortgage-backed securities; and consumer loans, including overdraft lines of credit, as well as the United States government securities, corporate fixed-income securities, and other marketable securities. It operates full-service banking offices in Queens, Nassau, Suffolk, Kings, and New York counties, New York; and an internet branch under the iGObanking and BankPurely brands. Flushing Financial Corporation was founded in 1929 and is based in Uniondale, New York.

About BayCom

BayCom Corp operates as the bank holding company for United Business Bank that provides various financial services to small and mid-sized businesses, service professionals, and individuals. The company provides demand, savings, money market, and time deposit accounts. It offers commercial and multifamily real estate loans, including owner-occupied and investor real estate loans; commercial and industrial loans, such as equipment loans and working capital lines of credit; small business administration loans; construction and land loans; agriculture-related loans; and consumer loans comprising installment loans, unsecured and secured personal lines of credit, and overdraft protection. In addition, the company provides online and mobile banking, automated teller machine, remote deposit capture, night depository, courier, direct deposit, treasury management, wire transfer, automated clearing house, debit cards, cashier's and travelers checks, letters of credit, lockbox, positive pay, reverse positive pay, and account reconciliation services, as well as zero balance accounts and sweep accounts, including loan sweep. It operates through a network of full-service banking branches in Northern and Southern California; Las Vegas, Nevada; Denver, Colorado; Custer, Delta, and Grand counties, Colorado; and Seattle, Washington and Central New Mexico. The company was formerly known as Bay Commercial Bank and changed its name to BayCom Corp in January 2017. BayCom Corp was incorporated in 2004 and is headquartered in Walnut Creek, California.