Citizens (NASDAQ:CIZN) vs. Investar (NASDAQ:ISTR) Financial Comparison

Citizens (NASDAQ:CIZN) and Investar (NASDAQ:ISTR) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings, institutional ownership and valuation.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Citizens and Investar, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Citizens	0	0	0	0	N/A
Investar	0	1	2	0	2.67

Investar has a consensus target price of $16.08, indicating a potential upside of 4.44%. Given Investar’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Investar is more favorable than Citizens.

Risk and Volatility

Citizens has a beta of -0.01, meaning that its share price is 101% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Investar has a beta of 0.77, meaning that its share price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Citizens	5.28%	9.16%	0.26%
Investar	12.02%	8.17%	0.65%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Citizens and Investar’s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Citizens	$60.02 million	0.74	$1.85 million	$0.64	12.27
Investar	$139.74 million	1.08	$16.68 million	$1.79	8.60

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

9.7% of Citizens shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 50.2% of Investar shares are held by institutional investors. 8.9% of Citizens shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.7% of Investar shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Citizens pays an annual dividend of $0.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.2%. Investar pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. Citizens pays out 100.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Investar pays out 22.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Summary

Investar beats Citizens on 11 of the 15 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 Investar

Investar Holding Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Investar Bank that provides a range of commercial banking products to individuals, professionals, and small to medium-sized businesses in south Louisiana, southeast Texas, and Alabama in the United States. The company offers various deposit products and services, such as savings, checking, money market, and individual retirement accounts, as well as various certificates of deposit; debit and credit cards; internet, mobile, and video banking services; and reciprocal deposit products. It also provides commercial real estate loans; commercial and industrial loans, including working capital lines of credit and equipment loans; loans for the construction of commercial projects, and single family residential and multifamily properties; one-to-four family residential real estate loans, such as second mortgage loans; and consumer loans, such as secured and unsecured installment and term loans, home equity loans and lines of credit, and auto loans, as well as loans for personal, family, and household purposes. In addition, the company offers treasury management products, including remote deposit capture, lockbox payment processing, virtual vault, positive pay, ACH origination, wire transfer, investment sweep accounts, and business internet banking services. Further, it provides various other banking services, such as cashiers' checks, direct deposit of payroll and social security checks, night depository, bank-by-mail, automated teller machines, electronic statements, interactive teller machines, online account opening, and mobile wallet payment services. Investar Holding Corporation was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.