Contrasting Citizens (NASDAQ:CIZN) & Peoples Bancorp (NASDAQ:PEBO)

Citizens (NASDAQ:CIZN) and Peoples Bancorp (NASDAQ:PEBO) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, profitability, dividends, earnings, risk and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Citizens and Peoples Bancorp, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Citizens	0	0	4	0	3.00
Peoples Bancorp	0	3	3	0	2.50

Citizens presently has a consensus price target of $14.17, indicating a potential upside of 34.92%. Peoples Bancorp has a consensus price target of $42.00, indicating a potential upside of 6.38%. Given Citizens’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Citizens is more favorable than Peoples Bancorp.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

9.7% of Citizens shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 60.7% of Peoples Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 8.9% of Citizens shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.3% of Peoples Bancorp shares are held by company 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.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Citizens and Peoples Bancorp”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Citizens	$40.95 million	1.46	$5.49 million	$1.68	6.25
Peoples Bancorp	$458.86 million	3.09	$106.78 million	$3.31	11.93

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

Dividends

Citizens pays an annual dividend of $0.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. Peoples Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.3%. Citizens pays out 4.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Peoples Bancorp pays out 50.8% 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. Citizens has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years and Peoples Bancorp has increased its dividend for 10 consecutive years. Peoples Bancorp is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Risk & Volatility

Citizens has a beta of 0.04, indicating that its share price is 96% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Peoples Bancorp has a beta of 0.59, indicating that its share price is 41% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Citizens and Peoples Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Citizens	7.00%	11.28%	0.37%
Peoples Bancorp	19.17%	10.71%	1.35%

Summary

Peoples Bancorp beats Citizens on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Citizens

Citizens Holding Company operates as the bank holding company for The Citizens Bank of Philadelphia that provides various commercial and personal banking products and services. It offers demand deposits; and savings and time deposit accounts. The company also provides secured and unsecured loans; mortgage loans; single and multi-family housing, farm, residential and commercial construction, and commercial real estate loans; commercial, industrial, and agricultural production loans; and consumer loans, as well as issues letters of credit. In addition, it offers personal and corporate trust services; credit life and title insurance; and online and mobile banking services. The company was founded in 1908 and is headquartered in Philadelphia, Mississippi.

About Peoples Bancorp

Peoples Bancorp Inc. operates as the holding company for Peoples Bank that provides commercial and consumer banking products and services. The company accepts various deposit products, including demand deposit accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, certificates of deposit, and governmental deposits; and provides commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, construction, finance, residential real estate, and consumer indirect and direct loans, as well as home equity lines of credit and overdrafts. It also offers debit and automated teller machine (ATM) cards; safe deposit rental facilities; money orders and cashier’s checks; and telephone, mobile, and online banking services. In addition, the company provides various life, health, and property and casualty insurance products; third-party insurance administration; interactive teller machines; insurance premium financing; check deposit and alert notification; commercial and technology equipment leasing; fiduciary and trust; underwriting, origination, and servicing of equipment leases, and equipment financing agreements; and asset management and administration services, as well as employee benefit, retirement, and health care plan administration services. Further, it offers brokerage services through an unaffiliated registered broker-dealers; insurance premium finance lending and leasing; and credit cards to individuals and businesses, as well as provides merchant credit card transaction processing, and person-to-person payment processing services. Peoples Bancorp Inc. was founded in 1902 and is headquartered in Marietta, Ohio.