Citizens (CIZN) Competitors

Citizens (NASDAQ:CIZN) and Meridian Bank (NASDAQ:MRBK) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, media sentiment, valuation, earnings, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk and dividends.

Is CIZN or MRBK more profitable?

Meridian Bank has a net margin of 9.01% compared to Citizens' net margin of 7.00%. Citizens' return on equity of 11.28% beat Meridian Bank's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Citizens	7.00%	11.28%	0.37%
Meridian Bank	9.01%	10.62%	0.75%

Do analysts prefer CIZN or MRBK?

Citizens presently has a consensus price target of $26.00, suggesting a potential upside of 248.99%. Meridian Bank has a consensus price target of $17.50, suggesting a potential upside of 15.13%. Given Citizens' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Citizens is more favorable than Meridian Bank.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Citizens	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
Meridian Bank	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50

Does the media favor CIZN or MRBK?

In the previous week, Meridian Bank had 1 more articles in the media than Citizens. MarketBeat recorded 1 mentions for Meridian Bank and 0 mentions for Citizens. Meridian Bank's average media sentiment score of 1.88 beat Citizens' score of 1.38 indicating that Meridian Bank is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Overall Sentiment
Citizens	Positive
Meridian Bank	Very Positive

Is CIZN or MRBK a better dividend stock?

Citizens pays an annual dividend of $0.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. Meridian Bank pays an annual dividend of $0.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. Citizens pays out 8.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Meridian Bank pays out 31.1% 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.

Which has more risk and volatility, CIZN or MRBK?

Citizens has a beta of -0.02, indicating that its stock price is 102% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Meridian Bank has a beta of 0.71, indicating that its stock price is 29% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of CIZN or MRBK?

9.7% of Citizens shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 58.6% of Meridian Bank shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.9% of Citizens shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 14.4% of Meridian Bank shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Which has preferable valuation & earnings, CIZN or MRBK?

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

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Citizens	$40.95M	1.03	$5.49M	$0.95	7.84
Meridian Bank	$121.20M	1.42	$16.35M	$1.61	9.44

Summary

Meridian Bank beats Citizens on 13 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.