Analyzing Blue Ridge Bankshares (NASDAQ:BRBS) & Citizens (NASDAQ:CIZN)

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Blue Ridge Bankshares and Citizens, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Blue Ridge Bankshares	0	0	0	0	0.00
Citizens	0	0	3	0	3.00

Citizens has a consensus target price of $24.00, indicating a potential upside of 167.91%. Given Citizens’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Citizens is more favorable than Blue Ridge Bankshares.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

50.5% of Blue Ridge Bankshares shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 9.7% of Citizens shares are held by institutional investors. 4.9% of Blue Ridge Bankshares shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.9% of Citizens shares are held 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.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Blue Ridge Bankshares and Citizens”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Blue Ridge Bankshares	$91.70 million	4.16	-$15.39 million	$0.10	41.75
Citizens	$40.95 million	1.24	$5.49 million	$1.45	6.18

Citizens has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Blue Ridge Bankshares. Citizens is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Blue Ridge Bankshares, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Blue Ridge Bankshares and Citizens’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Blue Ridge Bankshares	-8.84%	-5.48%	-0.52%
Citizens	7.00%	11.28%	0.37%

Dividends

Blue Ridge Bankshares pays an annual dividend of $2.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 57.5%. Citizens pays an annual dividend of $0.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Blue Ridge Bankshares pays out 2,400.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Citizens pays out 5.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Blue Ridge Bankshares has increased its dividend for 10 consecutive years and Citizens has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Blue Ridge Bankshares is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Volatility & Risk

Blue Ridge Bankshares has a beta of 0.79, indicating that its share price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Citizens has a beta of -0.01, indicating that its share price is 101% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Citizens beats Blue Ridge Bankshares on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Blue Ridge Bankshares

Blue Ridge Bankshares, Inc. operates as a bank holding company for the Blue Ridge Bank, National Association that provides commercial and consumer banking, and financial services. It operates through: Commercial Banking and Mortgage Banking segments. The company accepts checking, savings, money market, cash management, and individual retirement accounts, as well as certificates of deposit. It also offers commercial and industrial, residential mortgages, commercial mortgages, home equity, consumer installment, and guaranteed government loans; and residential mortgage loans and mortgages loans on real estate. In addition, it provides wire, direct deposit payroll, remote deposit, electronic statement, and other services; and property and casualty insurance products to individuals and businesses, as well as online, mobile, and telephone banking services. Further, the company offers employee benefit plans and administration services; management services for personal and corporate trusts, including estate planning and settlement, and trust administration, investment and wealth management services. It operates in Callao, Charlottesville, Chester, Colonial Heights, Culpeper, Fredericksburg, Gordonsville, Harrisonburg, Hartfield, Henrico, Kilmarnock, Louisa, Luray, Martinsville, Midlothian, Mineral, Montross, Orange, Petersburg, Richmond, Shenandoah, Suffolk, Virginia Beach, Warsaw, and White Stone, Virginia; and Greensboro, North Carolina. The company was founded in 1893 and is headquartered in Charlottesville, Virginia.

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.