Citizens Community Bancorp (NASDAQ:CZWI) and HomeTrust Bancshares (NASDAQ:HTBI) Critical Survey

Citizens Community Bancorp (NASDAQ:CZWI) and HomeTrust Bancshares (NASDAQ:HTBI) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, profitability, valuation and risk.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Citizens Community Bancorp and HomeTrust Bancshares’ revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Citizens Community Bancorp	$79.83 million	1.33	$17.76 million	$1.49	6.83
HomeTrust Bancshares	$218.18 million	1.79	$44.60 million	$2.80	8.04

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

Risk & Volatility

Citizens Community Bancorp has a beta of 0.92, suggesting that its share price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, HomeTrust Bancshares has a beta of 0.66, suggesting that its share price is 34% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

54.2% of Citizens Community Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 54.7% of HomeTrust Bancshares shares are held by institutional investors. 5.5% of Citizens Community Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 7.0% of HomeTrust Bancshares shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Citizens Community Bancorp and HomeTrust Bancshares’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Citizens Community Bancorp	17.61%	9.85%	0.89%
HomeTrust Bancshares	20.44%	11.47%	1.24%

Dividends

Citizens Community Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.29 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. HomeTrust Bancshares pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. Citizens Community Bancorp pays out 19.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. HomeTrust Bancshares pays out 14.3% 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 raised its dividend for 4 consecutive years and HomeTrust Bancshares has raised its dividend for 4 consecutive years.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Citizens Community Bancorp and HomeTrust Bancshares, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Citizens Community Bancorp	0	2	0	0	2.00
HomeTrust Bancshares	0	0	2	0	3.00

Citizens Community Bancorp currently has a consensus price target of $12.25, indicating a potential upside of 20.45%. HomeTrust Bancshares has a consensus price target of $30.00, indicating a potential upside of 33.33%. Given HomeTrust Bancshares’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe HomeTrust Bancshares is more favorable than Citizens Community Bancorp.

Summary

HomeTrust Bancshares beats Citizens Community Bancorp on 14 of the 16 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. The company accepts various deposit products, including demand deposits, savings and money market accounts, and certificates of deposit. It also offers various loan products comprising 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, the company provides a portfolio of investments, such as mortgage-backed, corporate asset-backed, U.S. Government sponsored agency, corporate debt, and trust preferred securities. The company was founded in 1938 and is based in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

About HomeTrust Bancshares

HomeTrust Bancshares, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for HomeTrust Bank that provides a range of retail and commercial banking products and services. The company's deposit products include savings, money market, noninterest-bearing, and interest-bearing checking accounts, as well as certificates of deposit for individuals, businesses, and nonprofit organizations. Its loan portfolio comprises retail consumer loans, such as one-to-four-family real estate lending, home equity lines of credit, construction and land/lots, indirect auto finance, and consumer lending; and commercial loans that include commercial real estate, construction and development, and commercial and industrial loans. The company also provides small business administration loans, equipment finance leases, and municipal leases; and cash management and online/mobile banking services. In addition, it invests in debt securities issued by the United States government agencies and government-sponsored enterprises, corporate bonds, commercial paper, and certificates of deposit insured by the federal deposit insurance corporation. HomeTrust Bancshares, Inc. was founded in 1926 and is headquartered in Asheville, North Carolina.