Citizens (NASDAQ:CIZN) and TriCo Bancshares (NASDAQ:TCBK) Critical Comparison

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Citizens and TriCo Bancshares, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Citizens	0	0	0	0	0.00
TriCo Bancshares	0	3	3	0	2.50

TriCo Bancshares has a consensus target price of $47.80, suggesting a potential upside of 17.39%. Given TriCo Bancshares’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe TriCo Bancshares is more favorable than Citizens.

Dividends

Citizens pays an annual dividend of $0.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. TriCo Bancshares pays an annual dividend of $1.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.2%. Citizens pays out 10.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. TriCo Bancshares pays out 38.5% 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. Citizens has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years and TriCo Bancshares has increased its dividend for 12 consecutive years. TriCo Bancshares is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Profitability

This table compares Citizens and TriCo Bancshares’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Citizens	7.00%	11.28%	0.37%
TriCo Bancshares	21.63%	9.63%	1.17%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Citizens and TriCo Bancshares”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Citizens	$40.95 million	1.16	$5.49 million	$0.80	10.53
TriCo Bancshares	$388.65 million	3.44	$114.87 million	$3.43	11.87

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

9.7% of Citizens shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 59.1% of TriCo Bancshares shares are held by institutional investors. 8.9% of Citizens shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 4.8% of TriCo Bancshares shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility and Risk

Citizens has a beta of -0.05, meaning that its share price is 105% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, TriCo Bancshares has a beta of 0.61, meaning that its share price is 39% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

TriCo Bancshares beats Citizens on 14 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 TriCo Bancshares

TriCo Bancshares operates as a bank holding company for Tri Counties Bank that provides commercial banking services to individual and corporate customers. The company accepts demand, savings, and time deposits. It also provides small business loans; real estate mortgage loans, such as residential and commercial loans; consumer loans; mortgage, auto, other vehicle, and personal loans; commercial loans, including agricultural loans; and real estate construction loans. In addition, the company offers treasury management services; credit and debit cards; and other customary banking services, including safe deposit boxes; and independent financial and broker-dealer services. Further, it provides checking, saving, and money market accounts, as well as individual retirement accounts; equipment financing; certificate of deposit account registry service; certificated of deposit; and IntraFi cash service. TriCo Bancshares was founded in 1975 and is headquartered in Chico, California.