Head-To-Head Survey: Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) versus Timberland Bancorp (NASDAQ:TSBK)

Timberland Bancorp (NASDAQ:TSBK) and Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations and risk.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

65.5% of Timberland Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.9% of Citizens Financial Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.6% of Timberland Bancorp shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of Citizens Financial Group shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk & Volatility

Timberland Bancorp has a beta of 0.31, indicating that its stock price is 69% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Citizens Financial Group has a beta of 0.72, indicating that its stock price is 28% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Timberland Bancorp	26.46%	11.72%	1.55%
Citizens Financial Group	17.18%	8.85%	0.93%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Timberland Bancorp and Citizens Financial Group”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Timberland Bancorp	$82.97 million	4.23	$29.16 million	$3.99	11.32
Citizens Financial Group	$12.06 billion	2.21	$1.83 billion	$4.61	13.74

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Timberland Bancorp and Citizens Financial Group, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Timberland Bancorp	0	0	0	1	4.00
Citizens Financial Group	0	4	15	1	2.85

Citizens Financial Group has a consensus target price of $79.38, indicating a potential upside of 25.27%. Given Citizens Financial Group’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Citizens Financial Group is more favorable than Timberland Bancorp.

Dividends

Timberland Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. Citizens Financial Group pays an annual dividend of $1.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. Timberland Bancorp pays out 30.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Citizens Financial Group pays out 39.9% 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. Timberland Bancorp has increased its dividend for 13 consecutive years.

Summary

Citizens Financial Group beats Timberland Bancorp on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Timberland Bancorp

Timberland Bancorp, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Timberland Bank that provides various community banking services in Washington. It offers various deposit products, including money market deposit, checking, and regular savings accounts, as well as certificates of deposit. The company also provides one-to four-family residential, multi-family, and commercial real estate loans; and construction lending products, such as custom and owner/builder, speculative one- to four-family, commercial, multi-family, land development, and land development. In addition, it offers consumer loans comprising home equity lines of credit and second mortgage loans, automobile loans, boat loans, motorcycle loans, recreational vehicle loans, savings account loans, and unsecured loans; and commercial business loans. Timberland Bancorp, Inc. was founded in 1915 and is headquartered in Hoquiam, Washington.

About Citizens Financial Group

Citizens Financial Group, Inc. operates as the bank holding company that provides retail and commercial banking products and services to individuals, small businesses, middle-market companies, corporations, and institutions in the United States. The company operates in two segments, Consumer Banking and Commercial Banking. The Consumer Banking segment offers deposit products, mortgage and home equity lending products, credit cards, business loans, wealth management, and investment services; and auto, education, and point-of-sale finance loans, as well as digital deposit products. This segment serves its customers through telephone service centers, as well as through its online and mobile platforms. The Commercial Banking segment provides various financial products and solutions, including lending and leasing, deposit and treasury management services, foreign exchange, and interest rate and commodity risk management solutions, as well as syndicated loans, corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, and debt and equity capital markets services. This segment serves corporate banking, healthcare, technology, asset finance, franchise finance, leasing, asset-based lending, commercial real estate, mid-corporate, and private equity sponsor industries. The company was formerly known as RBS Citizens Financial Group, Inc. and changed its name to Citizens Financial Group, Inc. in April 2014. Citizens Financial Group, Inc. was founded in 1828 and is headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island.