Reviewing Citizens & Northern (NASDAQ:CZNC) and United Bancorp (NASDAQ:UBCP)

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for United Bancorp and Citizens & Northern, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
United Bancorp	0	1	0	0	2.00
Citizens & Northern	0	2	1	0	2.33

Citizens & Northern has a consensus price target of $23.50, suggesting a potential downside of 16.93%. Given Citizens & Northern’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Citizens & Northern is more favorable than United Bancorp.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
United Bancorp	15.14%	10.63%	0.86%
Citizens & Northern	17.41%	11.86%	1.29%

Volatility and Risk

United Bancorp has a beta of 0.3, suggesting that its share price is 70% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Citizens & Northern has a beta of 0.39, suggesting that its share price is 61% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

United Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.79 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.4%. Citizens & Northern pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.2%. United Bancorp pays out 61.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Citizens & Northern pays out 81.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. United Bancorp has raised its dividend for 13 consecutive years. United Bancorp is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

15.4% of United Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 30.8% of Citizens & Northern shares are owned by institutional investors. 13.9% of United Bancorp shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 4.7% of Citizens & Northern shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
United Bancorp	$47.51 million	1.76	$7.75 million	$1.29	11.31
Citizens & Northern	$170.03 million	2.99	$23.43 million	$1.48	19.11

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

Summary

Citizens & Northern beats United Bancorp on 13 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About United Bancorp

United Bancorp, Inc. is a bank holding company headquartered in Martins Ferry, Ohio. Through its subsidiary, The Citizens Bank, National Association, the company provides community banking services to individuals, families, farmers, and businesses. The Citizens Bank offers a range of deposit products, including checking, savings, money market, and certificate of deposit accounts. Its lending activities include residential and commercial real estate loans, consumer loans, agricultural financing, and loans to small and middle-market businesses.

About Citizens & Northern

Citizens & Northern Corporation is a bank holding company headquartered in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania. Through its subsidiary, Citizens & Northern Bank, it provides community banking services to individuals, businesses and organizations. The bank offers deposit accounts and lending products, including commercial, residential mortgage and consumer loans. Its services also include wealth management and trust services. Citizens & Northern serves communities in north-central Pennsylvania and the Southern Tier of New York.