Financial Survey: Citizens & Northern (NASDAQ:CZNC) and United Bancorporation of Alabama (OTCMKTS:UBAB)

Citizens & Northern (NASDAQ:CZNC) and United Bancorporation of Alabama (OTCMKTS:UBAB) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, dividends, profitability, institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations and earnings.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

30.8% of Citizens & Northern shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 5.5% of United Bancorporation of Alabama shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.7% of Citizens & Northern shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Citizens & Northern and United Bancorporation of Alabama”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Citizens & Northern	$137.92 million	2.39	$24.15 million	$1.44	14.88
United Bancorporation of Alabama	$87.26 million	2.20	$31.54 million	$8.53	6.68

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings for Citizens & Northern and United Bancorporation of Alabama, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Citizens & Northern	0	1	0	0	2.00
United Bancorporation of Alabama	0	0	0	0	0.00

Volatility and Risk

Citizens & Northern has a beta of 0.48, indicating that its share price is 52% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, United Bancorporation of Alabama has a beta of 0.4, indicating that its share price is 60% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Citizens & Northern and United Bancorporation of Alabama’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Citizens & Northern	14.47%	8.28%	0.86%
United Bancorporation of Alabama	31.02%	22.48%	2.18%

Dividends

Citizens & Northern pays an annual dividend of $1.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.2%. United Bancorporation of Alabama pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. Citizens & Northern pays out 77.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. United Bancorporation of Alabama pays out 14.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Summary

Citizens & Northern beats United Bancorporation of Alabama on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About United Bancorporation of Alabama

United Bancorporation of Alabama, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for United Bank that provides banking services. The company offers checking and savings accounts, certificates of deposit, individual retirement accounts, small business programs, business solutions, merchant services, and cash management services. It also provides various lending services, such as personal loans, business loans, lines of credit, and equipment loans; real estate loans for the agricultural community and working lines of credit; and overdraft services. In addition, the company offers debit cards, prepaid cards, Visa credit cards, gift cards, and safe deposit boxes. Further, it provides check cashing, convenience, remote deposit, mobile check deposit, personal storage compartments, Web payment options, insurance products, investment and brokerage, and online and mobile banking services. United Bancorporation of Alabama, Inc. was founded in 1904 and is based in Atmore, Alabama.