Southern Missouri Bancorp (NASDAQ:SMBC) vs. Pathward Financial (NASDAQ:CASH) Critical Comparison

Southern Missouri Bancorp (NASDAQ:SMBC) and Pathward Financial (NASDAQ:CASH) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, risk, dividends and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations for Southern Missouri Bancorp and Pathward Financial, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Southern Missouri Bancorp	0	3	1	0	2.25
Pathward Financial	0	0	3	0	3.00

Southern Missouri Bancorp presently has a consensus target price of $83.67, suggesting a potential upside of 13.71%. Pathward Financial has a consensus target price of $101.00, suggesting a potential upside of 24.02%. Given Pathward Financial’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Pathward Financial is more favorable than Southern Missouri Bancorp.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Southern Missouri Bancorp and Pathward Financial”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Southern Missouri Bancorp	$200.65 million	4.04	$71.84 million	$6.43	11.44
Pathward Financial	$851.49 million	1.99	$185.87 million	$7.98	10.21

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

Profitability

This table compares Southern Missouri Bancorp and Pathward Financial’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Southern Missouri Bancorp	22.63%	12.72%	1.42%
Pathward Financial	21.03%	20.61%	2.41%

Risk & Volatility

Southern Missouri Bancorp has a beta of 0.86, suggesting that its share price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Pathward Financial has a beta of 0.61, suggesting that its share price is 39% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

49.5% of Southern Missouri Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.7% of Pathward Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. 15.8% of Southern Missouri Bancorp shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.4% of Pathward Financial shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Southern Missouri Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Pathward Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.2%. Southern Missouri Bancorp pays out 16.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Pathward Financial pays out 2.5% 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. Southern Missouri Bancorp has increased its dividend for 13 consecutive years. Southern Missouri Bancorp is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

Pathward Financial beats Southern Missouri Bancorp on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Southern Missouri Bancorp

Southern Missouri Bancorp, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Southern Bank that provides banking and financial services to individuals and corporate customers in the United States. The company offers deposits products, including interest-bearing and noninterest-bearing transaction accounts, saving accounts, certificates of deposit, retirement savings plans, and money market deposit accounts. It also provides loans, such as residential mortgage, commercial real estate, construction, and commercial business loans; and consumer loans comprising home equity, direct and indirect automobile loans, second mortgages, mobile home loans, and loans secured by deposits. In addition, the company offers fiduciary and investment management services; commercial and consumer insurance; online and mobile banking services; and debit or credit cards. The company was founded in 1887 and is headquartered in Poplar Bluff, Missouri.

About Pathward Financial

Pathward Financial, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Pathward, National Association that provides various banking products and services in the United States. The company operates through three segments: Consumer, Commercial, and Corporate Services/Other. It offers demand deposit accounts, savings accounts, and money market savings accounts. The company also provides commercial finance product comprising term lending, asset-based lending, factoring, lease financing, insurance premium finance, government guaranteed lending, and other commercial finance products; consumer credit products; other consumer financing services; tax services, which includes short-term refund advance loans and short-term electronic return originator advance loans; and warehouse financing services. In addition, it issues prepaid cards; and offers payment solutions, such as acceptance, processing, and settlement of credit card and debit card payments. The company was formerly known as Meta Financial Group, Inc. and changed its name to Pathward Financial, Inc. in July 2022. Pathward Financial, Inc. was founded in 1954 and is based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.