Critical Contrast: Camden National (NASDAQ:CAC) vs. Citizens & Northern (NASDAQ:CZNC)

Camden National (NASDAQ:CAC) and Citizens & Northern (NASDAQ:CZNC) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends and risk.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

77.4% of Camden National shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 30.8% of Citizens & Northern shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.1% of Camden National shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.7% of Citizens & Northern shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Camden National and Citizens & Northern, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Camden National	0	4	2	0	2.33
Citizens & Northern	1	3	0	0	1.75

Camden National presently has a consensus target price of $52.25, suggesting a potential upside of 1.97%. Citizens & Northern has a consensus target price of $23.50, suggesting a potential upside of 8.65%. Given Citizens & Northern’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Citizens & Northern is more favorable than Camden National.

Risk and Volatility

Camden National has a beta of 0.56, indicating that its share price is 44% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Citizens & Northern has a beta of 0.42, indicating that its share price is 58% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Camden National pays an annual dividend of $1.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. Citizens & Northern pays an annual dividend of $1.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.2%. Camden National pays out 35.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Citizens & Northern pays out 102.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Camden National and Citizens & Northern”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Camden National	$373.18 million	2.32	$65.16 million	$4.70	10.90
Citizens & Northern	$170.03 million	2.28	$23.43 million	$1.09	19.84

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

Profitability

This table compares Camden National and Citizens & Northern’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Camden National	21.32%	11.78%	1.16%
Citizens & Northern	9.67%	7.47%	0.81%

Summary

Camden National beats Citizens & Northern on 12 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Camden National

Camden National Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Camden National Bank that provides various commercial and consumer banking products and services for consumer, institutional, municipal, non-profit, and commercial customers in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. The company accepts checking, savings, time, and brokered deposits, as well as deposits with the certificate of deposit account registry system. Its loan products include non-owner-occupied commercial estate loans, owner-occupied commercial real estate loans, unsecured fully-guaranteed commercial loans backed by the small business administration, loans secured by one-to four-family properties, and consumer and home equity loans. The company also provides brokerage and insurance services through its financial offerings consisting of college, retirement, estate planning, mutual funds, strategic asset management accounts, and variable and fixed annuities. Further, it offers a range of fiduciary and asset management, wealth management, investment management, financial planning, and trustee services. Camden National Corporation was founded in 1875 and is headquartered in Camden, Maine.

About Citizens & Northern

Citizens & Northern Corp. is a holding company, which engages in community banking. It provides a full range of banking and mortgage services to individual and corporate customers in North Central Pennsylvania and Southern New York State. The firm’s lending products include mortgage loans, commercial loans, and consumer loans. Its deposit products include various types of checking accounts, passbook and statement savings, money market accounts, interest checking accounts, individual retirement accounts, and certificates of deposit. The company was founded in 1864 and is headquartered in Wellsboro, PA.