Citizens Community Bancorp (NASDAQ:CZWI) & CFSB Bancorp (NASDAQ:CFSB) Critical Contrast

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Citizens Community Bancorp and CFSB Bancorp, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Citizens Community Bancorp	0	2	0	0	2.00
CFSB Bancorp	0	0	0	0	N/A

Citizens Community Bancorp currently has a consensus target price of $12.25, suggesting a potential upside of 19.51%. Given Citizens Community Bancorp’s higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Citizens Community Bancorp is more favorable than CFSB Bancorp.

Volatility and Risk

Citizens Community Bancorp has a beta of 0.93, indicating that its stock price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CFSB Bancorp has a beta of 0.12, indicating that its stock price is 88% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Citizens Community Bancorp and CFSB Bancorp’s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Citizens Community Bancorp	$64.39 million	1.67	$17.76 million	$1.49	6.88
CFSB Bancorp	$11.34 million	4.16	$1.45 million	$0.23	30.96

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

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Citizens Community Bancorp	17.61%	9.85%	0.89%
CFSB Bancorp	12.75%	1.92%	0.41%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

53.4% of Citizens Community Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 1.1% of CFSB Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.5% of Citizens Community Bancorp shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.3% of CFSB Bancorp shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Citizens Community Bancorp beats CFSB Bancorp on 10 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Citizens Community Bancorp

Citizens Community Bancorp, Inc. operates as a bank holding company for Citizens Community Federal N.A. that provides various traditional community banking services to businesses, agricultural operators, and consumers. The company accepts various deposit products, including demand deposits, savings and money market accounts, and certificates of deposit. It also offers various loan products comprising commercial real estate, commercial and industrial, agricultural real estate, agricultural operating, and consumer loans; and one-to-four family residential mortgages and home equity lines-of-credit. In addition, the company provides a portfolio of investments, such as mortgage-backed, corporate asset-backed, U.S. Government sponsored agency, corporate debt, and trust preferred securities. The company was founded in 1938 and is based in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

About CFSB Bancorp

CFSB Bancorp, Inc. focuses on operating as a holding company for Colonial Federal Savings Bank that provides various financial services to individuals and small businesses. It accepts various deposits, including non-interest-bearing checking accounts, interest-bearing checking accounts, money market accounts, savings accounts, and certificates of deposit. The company also offers one- to four-family residential real estate loans, multi-family real estate loans, commercial real estate loans, second mortgage loans, home equity lines of credit, and consumer loans. In addition, it invests in various types of investment grade investment securities and liquid assets comprising the U.S. treasury obligations, securities of various government-sponsored enterprises, corporate debt, mortgage-backed securities, collateralized mortgage obligations, asset-backed securities, municipal obligations, mutual funds, and certificates of deposit of federally insured institutions. Further, it offers online and mobile banking, and online bill pay services. The company operates through three full-service banking offices and one limited-service branch office in Norfolk County, Massachusetts. The company was founded in 1889 and is based in Quincy, Massachusetts. CFSB Bancorp, Inc. operates as a subsidiary of 15 Beach, MHC.