Reviewing Citizens & Northern (NASDAQ:CZNC) and Jeffersonville Bancorp (OTCMKTS:JFBC)

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

30.8% of Citizens & Northern shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.4% of Jeffersonville Bancorp shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 4.7% of Citizens & Northern 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.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Jeffersonville Bancorp	37.66%	12.60%	1.94%
Citizens & Northern	9.67%	7.47%	0.81%

Dividends

Jeffersonville Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. Citizens & Northern pays an annual dividend of $1.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.4%. Jeffersonville Bancorp pays out 25.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. 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.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Jeffersonville Bancorp 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
Jeffersonville Bancorp	$34.24 million	3.43	$12.55 million	$3.09	8.98
Citizens & Northern	$170.03 million	2.66	$23.43 million	$1.09	23.17

Citizens & Northern has higher revenue and earnings than Jeffersonville Bancorp. Jeffersonville Bancorp 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

Jeffersonville Bancorp has a beta of 0.14, suggesting that its share price is 86% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Citizens & Northern has a beta of 0.4, suggesting that its share price is 60% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Jeffersonville Bancorp and Citizens & Northern, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Jeffersonville Bancorp	0	0	0	0	0.00
Citizens & Northern	0	4	0	0	2.00

Citizens & Northern has a consensus target price of $23.50, indicating a potential downside of 6.96%. Given Citizens & Northern’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Citizens & Northern is more favorable than Jeffersonville Bancorp.

Summary

Citizens & Northern beats Jeffersonville Bancorp on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Jeffersonville Bancorp

Jeffersonville Bancorp operates as the bank holding company for Jeff Bank that provides community banking services to individuals, small businesses, and local municipal governments primarily in Sullivan County, New York. The company offers various deposit products, such as checking, money market, savings, and NOW, as well as demand and time deposits. It also offers commercial mortgage, farmland, construction, real estate, agricultural, residential mortgage, home equity, consumer, installment, and other consumer loans. The company was founded in 1913 and is based in Jeffersonville, New York.

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.