Critical Review: Citizens & Northern (NASDAQ:CZNC) & Triumph Financial (NASDAQ:TFIN)

Triumph Financial (NASDAQ:TFIN) and Citizens & Northern (NASDAQ:CZNC) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, risk, dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Triumph Financial and Citizens & Northern, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Triumph Financial	2	3	0	0	1.60
Citizens & Northern	0	1	0	0	2.00

Triumph Financial currently has a consensus target price of $71.60, indicating a potential downside of 22.66%. Given Triumph Financial’s higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Triumph Financial is more favorable than Citizens & Northern.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Triumph Financial and Citizens & Northern”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Triumph Financial	$417.97 million	5.18	$41.08 million	$0.78	118.69
Citizens & Northern	$103.80 million	2.79	$24.15 million	$1.44	13.04

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

Insider & Institutional Ownership

91.1% of Triumph Financial shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 30.8% of Citizens & Northern shares are held by institutional investors. 6.2% of Triumph Financial shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 4.0% of Citizens & Northern shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Triumph Financial has a beta of 1.21, indicating that its share price is 21% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Citizens & Northern has a beta of 0.47, indicating that its share price is 53% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Triumph Financial and Citizens & Northern’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Triumph Financial	4.47%	2.64%	0.39%
Citizens & Northern	14.47%	8.28%	0.86%

Summary

Triumph Financial beats Citizens & Northern on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Triumph Financial

Triumph Financial, Inc., a financial holding company, provides various payments, factoring, and banking services in the United States. It operates through Banking, Factoring, and Payments segments. The company offers deposit products, including checking, savings, money market and certificates of deposit; and loan products, such as commercial real estate, land, commercial construction and land development, residential real estate, commercial agriculture, and consumer loans, as well as commercial and industrial loans, equipment loans, asset-based loans, business loans for working capital and operational purposes, and liquid credit loans. It also provides electronic banking services, debit cards, insurance brokerage services, mortgage warehouse facilities, and transportation factoring services, as well as payments services offered through TriumphPay platform, a payments network for the over-the-road trucking industry. The company was formerly known as Triumph Bancorp, Inc. and changed its name to Triumph Financial Inc. in December 2022. Triumph Financial Inc. was incorporated in 2003 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.

About Citizens & Northern

Citizens & Northern Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Citizens & Northern Bank that provides various banking and related services to individual and corporate customers. Its deposit products include various types of checking accounts, passbook and statement savings, money market accounts, interest checking accounts, and individual retirement accounts, as well as certificates of deposit; and lending products, including commercial, mortgage, and consumer loans, as well as specialized instruments, such as commercial letters-of-credit. The company also offers wealth management services comprising 401(k) plans, retirement planning, estate planning, estate settlements, and asset management; personal and commercial insurance products; and mutual funds, annuities, educational savings accounts, and other investment products through registered agents; and reinsures credit and mortgage, life and accident, and health insurance products. Citizens & Northern Corporation was founded in 1864 and is headquartered in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania.