Home Federal Bancorp, Inc. of Louisiana (NASDAQ:HFBL) versus Salisbury Bancorp (NASDAQ:SAL) Financial Analysis

Home Federal Bancorp, Inc. of Louisiana (NASDAQ:HFBL) and Salisbury Bancorp (NASDAQ:SAL) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Home Federal Bancorp, Inc. of Louisiana and Salisbury Bancorp, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Home Federal Bancorp, Inc. of Louisiana	0	0	0	0	N/A
Salisbury Bancorp	0	1	0	0	2.00

Salisbury Bancorp has a consensus price target of $44.00, suggesting a potential upside of 14.49%. Given Salisbury Bancorp’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Salisbury Bancorp is more favorable than Home Federal Bancorp, Inc. of Louisiana.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

15.4% of Home Federal Bancorp, Inc. of Louisiana shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 17.6% of Salisbury Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 20.2% of Home Federal Bancorp, Inc. of Louisiana shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 11.2% of Salisbury Bancorp shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

Home Federal Bancorp, Inc. of Louisiana has a beta of 0.63, meaning that its share price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Salisbury Bancorp has a beta of 0.73, meaning that its share price is 27% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Home Federal Bancorp, Inc. of Louisiana and Salisbury Bancorp’s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Home Federal Bancorp, Inc. of Louisiana	$24.24 million	2.01	$3.85 million	N/A	N/A
Salisbury Bancorp	$52.66 million	2.07	$11.14 million	$3.93	9.78

Salisbury Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than Home Federal Bancorp, Inc. of Louisiana.

Profitability

This table compares Home Federal Bancorp, Inc. of Louisiana and Salisbury Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Home Federal Bancorp, Inc. of Louisiana	15.53%	7.65%	0.78%
Salisbury Bancorp	20.21%	9.25%	0.91%

Dividends

Home Federal Bancorp, Inc. of Louisiana pays an annual dividend of $0.66 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Salisbury Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. Salisbury Bancorp pays out 29.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Home Federal Bancorp, Inc. of Louisiana has increased its dividend for 6 consecutive years.

Summary

Salisbury Bancorp beats Home Federal Bancorp, Inc. of Louisiana on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

Home Federal Bancorp, Inc. of Louisiana Company Profile

Home Federal Bancorp, Inc. of Louisiana operates as the holding company for Home Federal Bank, a federally chartered savings bank that provides financial services to individuals, corporate entities, and other organizations in the Shreveport-Bossier City metropolitan area. It accepts various deposits, such as passbook savings, certificates of deposit, and demand deposit accounts. The company also provides one-to-four family residential real estate loans; commercial-real estate secured loans; multi-family residential loans; commercial business loans; land loans; construction loans; home equity and second mortgage loans; equity lines of credit; and consumer non-real estate loans, including loans secured by deposit accounts, automobile loans, overdrafts, and other unsecured loans. It operates through its main office and seven full-service branch offices located in Shreveport and Bossier City, Louisiana. The company was founded in 1924 and is based in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Salisbury Bancorp Company Profile

Salisbury Bancorp, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Salisbury Bank and Trust Company that provides commercial banking, consumer financing, retail banking, and trust and wealth advisory services. It offers various retail and commercial deposit products. The company also provides loans, such as residential and commercial real estate loans; construction loans; commercial loans; and consumer loans, including home equity loans and lines of credit, and auto and personal installment loans. In addition, it offers a range of fiduciary services, including trust and estate administration, wealth advisory, and investment management services to individuals, families, businesses, and institutions. Further, the company provides additional depositor related services consisting of landlord/tenant lease security accounts and services, merchant services, payroll services, ATM services, bank-by-phone services, Internet banking services, Internet bill pay services, person to person payments, bank to bank transfers, mobile banking services with remote deposit, and Online financial management with account aggregation services, as well as cash management services, including remote deposit capture, ACH origination, wire transfers, and positive pay services. It operates through a network of fourteen banking offices and ten ATMs located in Litchfield County, Connecticut; Dutchess, Orange, and Ulster Counties, New York; and Berkshire County, Massachusetts. Salisbury Bancorp, Inc. was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Lakeville, Connecticut.