Contrasting Citizens Financial Services (NASDAQ:CZFS) and Origin Bancorp (NASDAQ:OBK)

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Citizens Financial Services and Origin Bancorp, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Citizens Financial Services	0	0	1	0	3.00
Origin Bancorp	0	1	4	0	2.80

Citizens Financial Services presently has a consensus target price of $53.00, suggesting a potential downside of 4.12%. Origin Bancorp has a consensus target price of $43.00, suggesting a potential upside of 42.58%. Given Origin Bancorp’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Origin Bancorp is more favorable than Citizens Financial Services.

Risk & Volatility

Citizens Financial Services has a beta of 0.43, meaning that its share price is 57% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Origin Bancorp has a beta of 0.78, meaning that its share price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Citizens Financial Services and Origin Bancorp”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Citizens Financial Services	$100.75 million	2.61	$27.82 million	$5.87	9.42
Origin Bancorp	$352.58 million	2.67	$76.49 million	$2.46	12.26

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

Profitability

This table compares Citizens Financial Services and Origin Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Citizens Financial Services	16.39%	9.93%	0.97%
Origin Bancorp	12.34%	6.91%	0.77%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

22.5% of Citizens Financial Services shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 54.7% of Origin Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 6.1% of Citizens Financial Services shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 6.4% of Origin Bancorp shares are held by company 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 Financial Services pays an annual dividend of $1.98 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. Origin Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. Citizens Financial Services pays out 33.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Origin Bancorp pays out 24.4% 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.

Summary

Origin Bancorp beats Citizens Financial Services on 10 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Citizens Financial Services

Citizens Financial Services, Inc., a bank holding company, provides various banking products and services for individual, business, governmental, and institutional customers. The company accepts various deposit products, such as checking, savings, and time deposit accounts. Its loan products include residential, commercial, and agricultural real estate loans; commercial and industrial loans; state and political subdivision loans; and consumer loans, as well as various other specialized financial services. The company also provides professional trust administration, investment management services, estate planning and administration, custody of securities, and individual retirement accounts. In addition, it offers brokerage and financial planning services, as well as assistance in various oil and gas leasing matters; and provides mutual funds, annuities, and health and life insurance products. Citizens Financial Services, Inc. was incorporated in 1984 and is headquartered in Mansfield, Pennsylvania.

About Origin Bancorp

Origin Bancorp, Inc. operates as a bank holding company for Origin Bank that provides banking and financial services to small and medium-sized businesses, municipalities, and retail clients in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. It offers noninterest and interest-bearing checking accounts, savings deposits, money market accounts, and time deposits; and offers commercial real estate, construction and land development, consumer, residential real estate, commercial and industrial, mortgage warehouse, and residential mortgage loans. The company also offers personal and commercial property, and casualty insurance products; and Internet banking and voice response information, mobile applications, cash management, overdraft protection, direct deposit, safe deposit boxes, U.S. savings bonds, and automatic account transfer services; and mobile and online banking, treasury management, mortgage origination and servicing facilities, peer-to-peer electronic pay solutions, and personal financial management solutions. The company was founded in 1912 and is headquartered in Ruston, Louisiana.