Malaga Financial (OTCMKTS:MLGF) & WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD) Financial Review

WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD) and Malaga Financial (OTCMKTS:MLGF) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, risk, dividends and earnings.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares WaFd and Malaga Financial”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
WaFd	$724.86 million	3.44	$226.07 million	$2.64	12.30
Malaga Financial	N/A	N/A	$22.65 million	$2.30	9.67

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

Profitability

This table compares WaFd and Malaga Financial’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
WaFd	16.02%	8.40%	0.84%
Malaga Financial	N/A	N/A	N/A

Institutional & Insider Ownership

83.7% of WaFd shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 1.1% of Malaga Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.5% of WaFd shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

WaFd has a beta of 0.89, suggesting that its share price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Malaga Financial has a beta of 0.15, suggesting that its share price is 85% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

WaFd pays an annual dividend of $1.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. Malaga Financial pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.5%. WaFd pays out 40.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Malaga Financial pays out 43.5% 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. WaFd has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for WaFd and Malaga Financial, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
WaFd	0	5	0	0	2.00
Malaga Financial	0	0	0	0	0.00

WaFd presently has a consensus target price of $32.00, suggesting a potential downside of 1.48%. Given WaFd’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe WaFd is more favorable than Malaga Financial.

Summary

WaFd beats Malaga Financial on 14 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About WaFd

WaFd, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Washington Federal Bank that provides lending, depository, insurance, and other banking services in the United States. The company offers deposit products, including business and personal checking accounts, and term certificates of deposit, as well as money market accounts and passbook savings accounts. It also provides single-family dwellings, construction, land acquisition and development, consumer lot, multi-family residential, commercial real estate, home equity, business, and consumer loans, as well as commercial and industrial loans. In addition, the company offers insurance brokerage services, such as individual and business insurance policies; holds and markets real estate properties; and debit and credit cards, as well as acts as the trustee. It serves consumers, mid-sized and large businesses, and owners and developers of commercial real estate. The company was formerly known as Washington Federal, Inc. and changed its name to WaFd, Inc in September 2023. WaFd, Inc was founded in 1917 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.

About Malaga Financial

Malaga Financial Corporation operates as the holding company for Malaga Bank that provides various community banking products and services to personal and business customers. It offers checking, savings, NOW, and money market accounts, certificates of deposits, business banking, consumer, and demand deposits. The company also provides commercial real estate, single and multi-family residential mortgage, consumer, 14-unit investment property, construction, personal, and business loans; home equity lines of credit; and certificates of deposit. In addition, it offers coupon redemption, direct deposit, overdraft lines of credit, telephone transfers, U.S. savings bond redemption, and wire transfer services; and ATM and VISA debit cards, bank by mail, medallion signature guarantee, night depository, notary, safe deposit boxes, and trust deed note collection services. Further, the company provides online banking services, including bill payer, e-statements, and mobile banking services. The company was incorporated in 2002 and is headquartered in Palos Verdes Estates, California.