Citizens (NASDAQ:CIZN – Get Free Report) and Oak Valley Bancorp (NASDAQ:OVLY – Get Free Report) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation and profitability.
Profitability
This table compares Citizens and Oak Valley 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% |
| Oak Valley Bancorp | 24.05% | 11.31% | 1.17% |
Dividends
Citizens pays an annual dividend of $0.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Oak Valley Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.75 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Citizens pays out 4.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Oak Valley Bancorp pays out 26.6% 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 Oak Valley Bancorp has raised its dividend for 11 consecutive years. Oak Valley Bancorp is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Analyst Ratings
This is a summary of recent recommendations for Citizens and Oak Valley Bancorp, as provided by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Citizens | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 3.00 |
| Oak Valley Bancorp | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3.00 |
Citizens presently has a consensus target price of $16.00, suggesting a potential upside of 81.82%. Given Citizens’ higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Citizens is more favorable than Oak Valley Bancorp.
Valuation and Earnings
This table compares Citizens and Oak Valley Bancorp”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Citizens | $40.95 million | 1.22 | $5.49 million | $1.68 | 5.24 |
| Oak Valley Bancorp | $83.84 million | 3.37 | $23.91 million | $2.82 | 11.90 |
Oak Valley Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than Citizens. Citizens is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Oak Valley Bancorp, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Insider and Institutional Ownership
9.7% of Citizens shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 30.9% of Oak Valley Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.9% of Citizens shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 13.9% of Oak Valley Bancorp shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Volatility & Risk
Citizens has a beta of 0.09, meaning that its share price is 91% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Oak Valley Bancorp has a beta of 0.22, meaning that its share price is 78% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
Oak Valley Bancorp beats Citizens on 13 of the 16 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 Oak Valley Bancorp
Oak Valley Bancorp operates as the bank holding company for Oak Valley Community Bank that provides a range of commercial banking services to individuals and small to medium-sized businesses in the Central Valley and the Eastern Sierras. The company's deposits products include checking and savings, money market, health savings, and individual retirement accounts, as well as certificates of deposit. It also offers commercial real estate loans, commercial business lending and trade finance, and small business administration lending, as well as consumer loans, including automobile loans, home mortgages, credit lines, and other personal loans. In addition, the company provides online and mobile banking, remote deposit capture, merchant, night depository, extended hours, wire transfer of funds, note collection services, and automated teller machines. The company was incorporated in 1990 and is headquartered in Oakdale, California.
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