Analyzing Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) & Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLYPO)

Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLYPO) and Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, valuation, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends and institutional ownership.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Valley National Bancorp and Citizens Financial Group, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Valley National Bancorp	0	0	0	0	0.00
Citizens Financial Group	0	3	17	0	2.85

Citizens Financial Group has a consensus target price of $79.05, indicating a potential upside of 8.11%. Given Citizens Financial Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Citizens Financial Group is more favorable than Valley National Bancorp.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Valley National Bancorp and Citizens Financial Group”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Valley National Bancorp	$2.15 billion	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Citizens Financial Group	$12.06 billion	2.55	$1.83 billion	$4.61	15.86

Citizens Financial Group has higher revenue and earnings than Valley National Bancorp.

Dividends

Valley National Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $2.30 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.3%. Citizens Financial Group pays an annual dividend of $1.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. Citizens Financial Group pays out 39.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

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

Profitability

This table compares Valley National Bancorp and Citizens Financial Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Valley National Bancorp	N/A	N/A	N/A
Citizens Financial Group	17.18%	8.85%	0.93%

Summary

Citizens Financial Group beats Valley National Bancorp on 9 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Valley National Bancorp

Valley National Bancorp operates as the holding company for Valley National Bank that provides various commercial, private banking, retail, insurance, and wealth management financial services products. It operates through Consumer Banking, Commercial Banking, and Treasury and Corporate other segments. The company offers non-interest bearing, savings, NOW, money market, and time deposit accounts; commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, residential mortgage, and automobile loans; loans secured by the cash surrender value of life insurance; home equity loans and lines of credit; automobile financing; and secured and unsecured other consumer loans. It also invests in various securities and interest-bearing deposits with other banks; and provides international banking services, such as standby and documentary letters of credit, and related products, as well as foreign exchange transactions, documentary collections, and foreign wire transfers services. In addition, the company offers investment services for individuals and small to medium sized businesses; and trusts investment strategies designed for various investment profiles and objectives. Further, it provides trust services, such as living and testamentary trusts, investment management, custodial and escrow services, and estate administration to individuals; tax credit advisory services; brokerage services; property and casualty, life, health, and title insurance agency services; and health care equipment lending and other commercial equipment leasing services, as well as owns real estate related investments. Additionally, the company offers online, mobile, and telephone banking services; receivable, payment, and security solution, merchant, payroll processing, and liquidity services; credit cards; and drive-in and night deposit, automated teller machine, remote deposit capture, and safe deposit facility services. Valley National Bancorp was founded in 1927 and is headquartered in Morristown, 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.