Analyzing 1st Colonial Bancorp (OTCMKTS:FCOB) & Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG)

1st Colonial Bancorp (OTCMKTS:FCOB) and Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, risk, dividends, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for 1st Colonial Bancorp and Citizens Financial Group, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
1st Colonial Bancorp	0	0	0	0	0.00
Citizens Financial Group	0	2	15	2	3.00

Citizens Financial Group has a consensus target price of $53.95, indicating a potential upside of 1.80%. Given Citizens Financial Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Citizens Financial Group is more favorable than 1st Colonial Bancorp.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares 1st Colonial Bancorp and Citizens Financial Group”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
1st Colonial Bancorp	$46.18 million	1.91	$8.06 million	$1.72	10.70
Citizens Financial Group	$12.36 billion	1.85	$1.51 billion	$3.29	16.11

Citizens Financial Group has higher revenue and earnings than 1st Colonial Bancorp. 1st Colonial Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Citizens Financial Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares 1st Colonial Bancorp and Citizens Financial Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
1st Colonial Bancorp	17.58%	10.67%	0.99%
Citizens Financial Group	13.26%	6.94%	0.72%

Volatility & Risk

1st Colonial Bancorp has a beta of 0.07, indicating that its share price is 93% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Citizens Financial Group has a beta of 0.79, indicating that its share price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

13.4% of 1st Colonial Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.9% of Citizens Financial Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.7% of Citizens Financial Group shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Citizens Financial Group beats 1st Colonial Bancorp on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About 1st Colonial Bancorp

1st Colonial Bancorp, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for 1st Colonial Community Bank that provides a range of business and consumer financial services in New Jersey. The company offers various deposit products, including savings accounts, money market accounts, certificates of deposit, club accounts, and business and personal checking accounts. It also provides home equity loans, home equity lines of credit, personal and vehicle loans, residential and commercial mortgages, construction loans, business lines of credit, equipment and vehicle financing, real estate loans, working capital line of credit, and business acquisition loans, as well as small business administration loans. In addition, the company offers cash management services comprising remote deposit capture, ACH/wire transfer, night deposit drop, and merchant services; safe deposit boxes; and coin counting, online and mobile banking, debit card, and ATM services. The company was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Mount Laurel, New Jersey.

About Citizens Financial Group

Citizens Financial Group, Inc. operates as the bank holding company that provides retail and commercial banking products and services to individuals, small businesses, middle-market companies, corporations, and institutions in the United States. The company operates in two segments, Consumer Banking and Commercial Banking. The Consumer Banking segment offers deposit products, mortgage and home equity lending products, credit cards, business loans, wealth management, and investment services; and auto, education, and point-of-sale finance loans, as well as digital deposit products. This segment serves its customers through telephone service centers, as well as through its online and mobile platforms. The Commercial Banking segment provides various financial products and solutions, including lending and leasing, deposit and treasury management services, foreign exchange, and interest rate and commodity risk management solutions, as well as syndicated loans, corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, and debt and equity capital markets services. This segment serves corporate banking, healthcare, technology, asset finance, franchise finance, leasing, asset-based lending, commercial real estate, mid-corporate, and private equity sponsor industries. The company was formerly known as RBS Citizens Financial Group, Inc. and changed its name to Citizens Financial Group, Inc. in April 2014. Citizens Financial Group, Inc. was founded in 1828 and is headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island.