Citizens Community Bancorp (NASDAQ:CZWI) vs. Northeast Bancorp (NASDAQ:NBN) Head-To-Head Contrast

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

Insider & Institutional Ownership

55.1% of Citizens Community Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.9% of Citizens Community Bancorp shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 14.2% of Northeast Bancorp shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Citizens Community Bancorp and Northeast Bancorp, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Citizens Community Bancorp	0	1	1	0	2.50
Northeast Bancorp	0	1	2	0	2.67

Northeast Bancorp has a consensus price target of $117.50, suggesting a potential downside of 5.17%. Given Northeast Bancorp’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Northeast Bancorp is more favorable than Citizens Community Bancorp.

Dividends

Citizens Community Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.42 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. Northeast Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.0%. Citizens Community Bancorp pays out 28.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Northeast Bancorp pays out 0.4% 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 Community Bancorp has raised its dividend for 6 consecutive years. Citizens Community Bancorp is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Volatility & Risk

Citizens Community Bancorp has a beta of 0.55, indicating that its share price is 45% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Northeast Bancorp has a beta of 0.58, indicating that its share price is 42% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Citizens Community Bancorp and Northeast Bancorp”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Citizens Community Bancorp	$98.77 million	2.02	$14.42 million	$1.46	14.16
Northeast Bancorp	$351.00 million	2.90	$83.44 million	$10.37	11.95

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

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Citizens Community Bancorp	14.60%	7.81%	0.82%
Northeast Bancorp	24.16%	17.34%	1.98%

Summary

Northeast Bancorp beats Citizens Community Bancorp on 13 of the 17 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. It accepts various deposit products, including demand deposits, savings and money market accounts, and certificates of deposit. The company also offers various loan products, such as 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, it maintains a portfolio of investments comprising mortgage-backed, corporate asset-backed, U.S. Government sponsored agency, and corporate debt securities. Citizens Community Bancorp, Inc. was founded in 1938 and is based in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

About Northeast Bancorp

Northeast Bank provides banking services to individual and corporate customers in Maine. The company's deposit products include demand deposit, NOW, money market, savings, certificate of deposit, and individual retirement accounts, as well as checking accounts. Its loan portfolio comprises residential mortgage loans; multi-family and other commercial real estate loans; commercial and industrial loans, such as term loans, lines of credit and equipment, and receivables financing; consumer loans comprising mobile home and overdraft, and deposit-secured loans; and small business administration loans. In addition, the company offers telephone banking, online banking and bill payment, mobile banking, cash management, and remote deposit capture services, as well as debit and credit card, ATM, electronic transfer, and check services. Further, it provides various services, such as money market, merchant, and payroll and HR. Northeast Bank was founded in 1872 and is headquartered in Portland, Maine.