Critical Review: Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida (NASDAQ:SBCF) versus Citizens Bancshares (OTCMKTS:CZBS)

Citizens Bancshares (OTCMKTS:CZBS) and Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida (NASDAQ:SBCF) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk, valuation, profitability, dividends and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Citizens Bancshares and Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Citizens Bancshares	0	0	0	0	0.00
Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida	0	5	2	0	2.29

Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida has a consensus price target of $31.90, indicating a potential downside of 7.13%. Given Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida is more favorable than Citizens Bancshares.

Risk and Volatility

Citizens Bancshares has a beta of 0.38, meaning that its share price is 62% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida has a beta of 0.93, meaning that its share price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Citizens Bancshares and Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Citizens Bancshares	N/A	N/A	N/A
Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida	15.47%	7.07%	0.98%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Citizens Bancshares and Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Citizens Bancshares	$44.68 million	1.79	$12.88 million	N/A	N/A
Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida	$652.63 million	5.15	$144.88 million	$1.60	21.47

Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida has higher revenue and earnings than Citizens Bancshares.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

81.8% of Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida shares are held by institutional investors. 10.2% of Citizens Bancshares shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.6% of Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Citizens Bancshares pays an annual dividend of $1.10 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida pays an annual dividend of $0.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida pays out 47.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida has increased its dividend for 4 consecutive years.

Summary

Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida beats Citizens Bancshares on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Citizens Bancshares

Citizens Bancshares Corporation operates as the holding company for Citizens Trust Bank that provides various commercial banking services to individual and corporate customers. The company offers checking and savings accounts; and demand and money market deposits. Its loan products include commercial, financial, and agricultural loans; loans secured by personal property, such as automobiles, marketable securities, and other titled recreational vehicles and motorcycles, as well as unsecured consumer debt; commercial real estate loans; single-family residential loans; and construction and development loans. The company also offers investment accounts and certificate of deposit account registry services. In addition, it provides merchant services, which include point of sale terminal, credit and debit card processing, electronic benefits transfer, gift card, and Internet shopping cart services; cash management services; and credit cards. Further, the company offers online and mobile banking, as well as check reorder services. Citizens Bancshares Corporation was founded in 1921 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

About Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida

Seacoast Banking Corp. of Florida is a financial holding company, which engages in the provision of integrated financial services. It provides banking and investment services to businesses and consumers, including personal and business deposit products, Internet and mobile banking, personal, commercial and mortgage loans, wealth management services, and treasury management solutions. The company was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Stuart, FL.