Metropolitan Bank (NYSE:MCB) & Citizens & Northern (NASDAQ:CZNC) Critical Comparison

Citizens & Northern (NASDAQ:CZNC) and Metropolitan Bank (NYSE:MCB) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation, dividends and profitability.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

30.8% of Citizens & Northern shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 79.8% of Metropolitan Bank shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.7% of Citizens & Northern shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 5.5% of Metropolitan Bank shares are owned 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.

Dividends

Citizens & Northern pays an annual dividend of $1.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.6%. Metropolitan Bank pays an annual dividend of $1.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Citizens & Northern pays out 102.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Metropolitan Bank pays out 17.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Citizens & Northern	9.67%	7.47%	0.81%
Metropolitan Bank	14.31%	10.72%	1.03%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Citizens & Northern and Metropolitan Bank”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Citizens & Northern	$170.03 million	2.57	$23.43 million	$1.09	22.34
Metropolitan Bank	$306.37 million	3.69	$71.10 million	$7.90	11.56

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

Volatility & Risk

Citizens & Northern has a beta of 0.41, meaning that its share price is 59% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Metropolitan Bank has a beta of 1, meaning that its share price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Citizens & Northern and Metropolitan Bank, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Citizens & Northern	0	4	0	0	2.00
Metropolitan Bank	0	1	2	1	3.00

Citizens & Northern presently has a consensus price target of $23.50, suggesting a potential downside of 3.49%. Metropolitan Bank has a consensus price target of $103.50, suggesting a potential upside of 13.36%. Given Metropolitan Bank’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Metropolitan Bank is more favorable than Citizens & Northern.

Summary

Metropolitan Bank beats Citizens & Northern on 15 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Citizens & Northern

Citizens & Northern Corp. is a holding company, which engages in community banking. It provides a full range of banking and mortgage services to individual and corporate customers in North Central Pennsylvania and Southern New York State. The firm’s lending products include mortgage loans, commercial loans, and consumer loans. Its deposit products include various types of checking accounts, passbook and statement savings, money market accounts, interest checking accounts, individual retirement accounts, and certificates of deposit. The company was founded in 1864 and is headquartered in Wellsboro, PA.

About Metropolitan Bank

Metropolitan Bank Holding Corp. operates as the bank holding company for Metropolitan Commercial Bank that provides a range of business, commercial, and retail banking products and services to small businesses, middle-market enterprises, public entities, and individuals in the New York metropolitan area. The company offers checking, savings, term deposit, money market, demand deposit, and other interest-bearing transaction accounts. It also provides lending products, including commercial real estate, multi-family, construction, and one-to four-family real estate loans; commercial and industrial loans; consumer loans; acquisition and renovation loans; loans to refinance or return borrower equity; loans on owner-occupied properties; working capital lines of credit; trade finance and letters of credit; and term loans. In addition, the company offers cash management services, as well as online and mobile banking, ACH, remote deposit capture, and debit cards. The company was formerly known as Metbank Holding Corp. and changed its name to Metropolitan Bank Holding Corp. in January 2007. Metropolitan Bank Holding Corp. was incorporated in 1997 and is headquartered in New York, New York.