Critical Comparison: Chemung Financial (NASDAQ:CHMG) and Citizens (NASDAQ:CIZN)

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

Risk & Volatility

Citizens has a beta of -0.01, meaning that its stock price is 101% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Chemung Financial has a beta of 0.18, meaning that its stock price is 82% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Citizens and Chemung Financial’s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Citizens	$60.02 million	0.74	$1.85 million	$0.64	12.27
Chemung Financial	$137.62 million	1.66	$25.00 million	$5.22	9.20

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

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Citizens	5.28%	9.16%	0.26%
Chemung Financial	17.35%	12.39%	0.84%

Dividends

Citizens pays an annual dividend of $0.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.2%. Chemung Financial pays an annual dividend of $1.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. Citizens pays out 100.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Chemung Financial pays out 23.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

9.7% of Citizens shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 47.5% of Chemung Financial shares are held by institutional investors. 8.9% of Citizens shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 12.0% of Chemung Financial shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Citizens and Chemung Financial, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Citizens	0	0	0	0	N/A
Chemung Financial	0	1	0	0	2.00

Chemung Financial has a consensus price target of $49.00, suggesting a potential upside of 2.08%. Given Chemung Financial’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Chemung Financial is more favorable than Citizens.

Summary

Chemung Financial beats Citizens on 12 of the 14 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 Chemung Financial

Chemung Financial Corporation operates as a bank holding company for Chemung Canal Trust Company that provides a range of banking, financing, fiduciary, and other financial services. The company provides demand, savings, and time deposits; non-interest and interest-bearing checking accounts; and insured money market accounts. It also offers commercial and agricultural loans comprising loans to small to mid-sized businesses; commercial and residential mortgage loans; and consumer loans, including home equity lines of credit and home equity term loans. In addition, the company provides interest rate swaps, letters of credit, employee benefit plans, insurance products, mutual fund, brokerage, and tax preparation services. Further, it offers guardian, custodian, trustee, investment, pension, estate planning, and employee benefit administrative services, as well as acts as an agent for pension, profit-sharing, and other employee benefit trusts. Chemung Financial Corporation was founded in 1833 and is headquartered in Elmira, New York.