Reviewing Citizens Community Bancorp (NASDAQ:CZWI) and Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC)

Citizens Community Bancorp (NASDAQ:CZWI) and Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Profitability

This table compares Citizens Community Bancorp and Hancock Whitney’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Citizens Community Bancorp	12.94%	6.80%	0.72%
Hancock Whitney	21.81%	11.36%	1.41%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Citizens Community Bancorp and Hancock Whitney”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Citizens Community Bancorp	$98.77 million	2.14	$14.42 million	$1.31	16.73
Hancock Whitney	$2.02 billion	3.15	$486.07 million	$5.10	15.40

Hancock Whitney has higher revenue and earnings than Citizens Community Bancorp. Hancock Whitney is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Citizens Community Bancorp, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

55.1% of Citizens Community Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 81.2% of Hancock Whitney shares are held by institutional investors. 4.1% of Citizens Community Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of Hancock Whitney shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility and Risk

Citizens Community Bancorp has a beta of 0.51, indicating that its stock price is 49% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Hancock Whitney has a beta of 0.95, indicating that its stock price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Citizens Community Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.42 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Hancock Whitney pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. Citizens Community Bancorp pays out 32.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Hancock Whitney pays out 39.2% 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 Community Bancorp has increased its dividend for 6 consecutive years and Hancock Whitney has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Citizens Community Bancorp and Hancock Whitney, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Citizens Community Bancorp	0	2	1	0	2.33
Hancock Whitney	0	4	6	1	2.73

Citizens Community Bancorp presently has a consensus target price of $24.00, suggesting a potential upside of 9.49%. Hancock Whitney has a consensus target price of $83.78, suggesting a potential upside of 6.70%. Given Citizens Community Bancorp’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Citizens Community Bancorp is more favorable than Hancock Whitney.

Summary

Hancock Whitney beats Citizens Community Bancorp on 13 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Citizens Community Bancorp

Citizens Community Bancorp, Inc. operates as a bank holding company for Citizens Community Federal N.A. that provides various traditional community banking services to businesses, agricultural operators, and consumers. It accepts various deposit products, including demand deposits, savings and money market accounts, and certificates of deposit. The company also offers various loan products, such as commercial real estate, commercial and industrial, agricultural real estate, agricultural operating, and consumer loans; and one-to-four family residential mortgages and home equity lines-of-credit. In addition, it maintains a portfolio of investments comprising mortgage-backed, corporate asset-backed, U.S. Government sponsored agency, and corporate debt securities. Citizens Community Bancorp, Inc. was founded in 1938 and is based in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

About Hancock Whitney

Hancock Whitney Corporation operates as the financial holding company for Hancock Whitney Bank that provides traditional and online banking services to commercial, small business, and retail customers. It offers various transaction and savings deposit products consisting of brokered deposits, time deposits, and money market accounts; treasury management services, secured and unsecured loan products including revolving credit facilities, and letters of credit and similar financial guarantees; and trust and investment management services to retirement plans, corporations, and individuals, and investment advisory and brokerage products. The company also provides commercial and industrial loans including real and non-real estate loans; construction and land development loans; and residential mortgages, as well as consumer loans. In addition, it offers commercial finance products to middle market and corporate clients, including leases and related structures; facilitates investments in new market tax credit activities and holding certain foreclosed assets; provides customers access to fixed annuity and life insurance products; and underwriting transactions products, as well as debt and mortgage-related securities. The company was founded in 1899 and is headquartered in Gulfport, Mississippi.