Comparing Citizens (NASDAQ:CIZN) & MidWestOne Financial Group (NASDAQ:MOFG)

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

Risk and Volatility

Citizens has a beta of 0.02, indicating that its share price is 98% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MidWestOne Financial Group has a beta of 0.88, indicating that its share price is 12% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Citizens and MidWestOne Financial Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Citizens	7.00%	11.28%	0.37%
MidWestOne Financial Group	9.79%	6.54%	0.54%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for Citizens and MidWestOne Financial Group, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Citizens	0	0	0	0	0.00
MidWestOne Financial Group	0	2	1	0	2.33

MidWestOne Financial Group has a consensus target price of $34.67, suggesting a potential upside of 27.92%. Given MidWestOne Financial Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe MidWestOne Financial Group is more favorable than Citizens.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Citizens and MidWestOne Financial Group”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Citizens	$40.95 million	0.98	$5.49 million	$0.98	7.24
MidWestOne Financial Group	$69.29 million	8.14	-$60.29 million	($4.06)	-6.67

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

9.7% of Citizens shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 65.4% of MidWestOne Financial Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.9% of Citizens shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.5% of MidWestOne Financial Group shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Citizens pays an annual dividend of $0.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. MidWestOne Financial Group pays an annual dividend of $0.97 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. Citizens pays out 8.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. MidWestOne Financial Group pays out -23.9% 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. MidWestOne Financial Group is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Summary

MidWestOne Financial Group beats Citizens on 11 of the 16 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 MidWestOne Financial Group

MidWestOne Financial Group, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for MidWestOne Bank that provides commercial and retail banking products and services to individuals, businesses, governmental units, and institutional customers. It offers range of deposit products, including noninterest bearing and interest bearing demand deposits, savings, money market, and time deposits accounts. The company also provides commercial, real estate, agricultural, credit card, and consumer loans; and financing arrangements, such as brokered deposits, term debt, subordinated debt, and equity. In addition, it offers trust and investment services comprising administering estates, trusts, and conservatorships; property and farm management, investment advisory, retail securities brokerage, financial planning, and custodial services; and licensed brokers services. Further, the company provides online and mobile banking, debit cards, automated teller machines, and safe deposit boxes. MidWestOne Financial Group, Inc. was founded in 1934 and is headquartered in Iowa City, Iowa.