Head to Head Comparison: Origin Bancorp (NASDAQ:OBNK) versus Citizens (NASDAQ:CIZN)

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

Volatility and Risk

Citizens has a beta of -0.01, meaning that its share price is 101% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Origin Bancorp has a beta of 0.89, meaning that its share price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Citizens and Origin Bancorp”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Citizens	$40.95 million	0.97	$5.49 million	$1.31	5.34
Origin Bancorp	$347.14 million	3.15	$87.71 million	$3.21	11.07

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

Dividends

Citizens pays an annual dividend of $0.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. Origin Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Citizens pays out 6.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Origin Bancorp pays out 18.7% 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. Citizens has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years and Origin Bancorp has raised its dividend for 4 consecutive years. Origin Bancorp is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Citizens	7.00%	11.28%	0.37%
Origin Bancorp	20.47%	10.45%	0.97%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

9.7% of Citizens shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 47.2% of Origin Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.9% of Citizens shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 6.2% of Origin Bancorp shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Citizens and Origin Bancorp, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Citizens	0	0	1	0	3.00
Origin Bancorp	0	0	0	0	0.00

Citizens presently has a consensus target price of $23.00, indicating a potential upside of 228.57%. Given Citizens’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Citizens is more favorable than Origin Bancorp.

Summary

Origin Bancorp beats Citizens on 11 of the 17 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 Origin Bancorp

Origin Bancorp, Inc. is a bank holding company, which engages in the provision of financial services to small and medium-sized businesses, municipalities, high net worth individuals, and retail clients. The firm’s products and services include lending, deposits, mortgage banking, and insurance. It also offers other banking services such as Internet banking and voice response information, mobile applications, cash management, overdraft protection, direct deposit, safe deposit boxes, U.S. savings bonds, and automatic account transfers. The company was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Ruston, LA.