Contrasting Catalyst Bancorp (NASDAQ:CLST) & Dime Community Bancshares (NASDAQ:DCOM)

Dime Community Bancshares (NASDAQ:DCOM) and Catalyst Bancorp (NASDAQ:CLST) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends, risk, earnings and valuation.

Volatility & Risk

Dime Community Bancshares has a beta of 1.09, indicating that its share price is 9% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Catalyst Bancorp has a beta of 0.17, indicating that its share price is 83% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Dime Community Bancshares and Catalyst Bancorp, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Dime Community Bancshares	0	2	3	1	2.83
Catalyst Bancorp	0	1	0	0	2.00

Dime Community Bancshares presently has a consensus price target of $38.00, suggesting a potential upside of 18.45%. Given Dime Community Bancshares’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Dime Community Bancshares is more favorable than Catalyst Bancorp.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Dime Community Bancshares and Catalyst Bancorp”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Dime Community Bancshares	$730.38 million	1.93	$110.68 million	$2.36	13.59
Catalyst Bancorp	$23.69 million	2.88	$2.05 million	$0.56	29.61

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

Insider & Institutional Ownership

75.3% of Dime Community Bancshares shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 33.1% of Catalyst Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 7.1% of Dime Community Bancshares shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 8.2% of Catalyst Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Dime Community Bancshares and Catalyst Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Dime Community Bancshares	15.15%	9.12%	0.83%
Catalyst Bancorp	13.26%	2.53%	0.74%

Summary

Dime Community Bancshares beats Catalyst Bancorp on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Dime Community Bancshares

Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. operates as the holding company for Dime Community Bank that engages in the provision of various commercial banking and financial services. The company accepts time, savings, and demand deposits from the businesses, consumers, and local municipalities. It also offers commercial real estate loans; multi-family mortgage loans; residential mortgage loans; letters of credit; secured and unsecured commercial and consumer loans; lines of credit; home equity loans; and construction and land loans. In addition, the company invests in Federal Home Loan Bank, Federal National Mortgage Association, Government National Mortgage Association, and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation mortgage-backed securities, collateralized mortgage obligations, and other asset backed securities; U.S. Treasury securities; New York state and local municipal obligations; U.S. government-sponsored enterprise securities; and corporate bonds. Further, it offers certificate of deposit account registry services and insured cash sweep programs; federal deposit insurance corporation insurance; merchant credit and debit card processing, automated teller machines, cash management services, lockbox processing, online banking services, remote deposit capture, safe deposit boxes, and individual retirement accounts; investment products and services through a third-party broker dealer; and title insurance broker services for small and medium sized businesses, and municipal and consumer relationships. The company was founded in 1910 and is headquartered in Hauppauge, New York.

About Catalyst Bancorp

Catalyst Bancorp, Inc. operates as a holding company for Catalyst Bank that provides various banking services to individuals and businesses in Louisiana. The company accepts various deposit products, including savings accounts, demand and NOW accounts, money market accounts, and certificates of deposit. It also offers single family residential first mortgage loans, commercial real estate mortgage loans, multi-family residential mortgage loans, commercial and industrial loans, construction and land loans, consumer loans, and other loans. In addition, the company invests in various types of securities comprising mortgage-backed securities, the U.S. treasury obligations, securities of various federal agencies and of state and municipal governments, certificates of deposit at federally insured banks and savings institutions, and federal funds. Catalyst Bancorp, Inc. was founded in 1922 and is headquartered in Opelousas, Louisiana.