Reviewing Silvergate Capital (NYSE:SI) & Citizens & Northern (NASDAQ:CZNC)

Silvergate Capital (NYSE:SI) and Citizens & Northern (NASDAQ:CZNC) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, risk, institutional ownership and valuation.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Silvergate Capital and Citizens & Northern, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Silvergate Capital	0	0	0	0	0.00
Citizens & Northern	0	1	0	0	2.00

Dividends

Silvergate Capital pays an annual dividend of $2.94 per share and has a dividend yield of 840.6%. Citizens & Northern pays an annual dividend of $1.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.8%. Silvergate Capital pays out -9.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Citizens & Northern pays out 64.0% 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. Silvergate Capital is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Silvergate Capital and Citizens & Northern”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Silvergate Capital	-$609.47 million	-0.02	-$937.91 million	($29.96)	-0.01
Citizens & Northern	$107.87 million	2.78	$25.96 million	$1.75	11.05

Citizens & Northern has higher revenue and earnings than Silvergate Capital. Silvergate Capital 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

Silvergate Capital has a beta of 2.23, suggesting that its stock price is 123% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Citizens & Northern has a beta of 0.53, suggesting that its stock price is 47% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Silvergate Capital	45.10%	8.87%	0.81%
Citizens & Northern	16.50%	9.71%	1.00%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

94.4% of Silvergate Capital shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 30.8% of Citizens & Northern shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.7% of Silvergate Capital shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.5% of Citizens & Northern shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Citizens & Northern beats Silvergate Capital on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Silvergate Capital

Silvergate Capital Corporation operates as a bank holding company for Silvergate Bank that provides banking products and services to business and individual clients in the United States. The company accepts deposit products, including interest and noninterest bearing demand accounts, money market and savings accounts, and certificates of deposit accounts. Its loan products comprise one-to-four family real estate loans, multi-family real estate loans, commercial real estate loans, construction loans, commercial and industrial loans, mortgage warehouse loans, and reverse mortgage loans, as well as consumer loans and other loans secured by personal property. The company also provides cash management services for digital currency-related businesses. Silvergate Capital Corporation was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in La Jolla, California.

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.