Reviewing Citizens Community Bancorp (NASDAQ:CZWI) and Wayne Savings Bancshares (OTCMKTS:WAYN)

Citizens Community Bancorp (NASDAQ:CZWI) and Wayne Savings Bancshares (OTCMKTS:WAYN) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations, risk and institutional ownership.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

55.1% of Citizens Community Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 12.1% of Wayne Savings Bancshares shares are held by institutional investors. 5.5% of Citizens Community Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 3.2% of Wayne Savings Bancshares shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Citizens Community Bancorp	14.07%	8.37%	0.79%
Wayne Savings Bancshares	17.74%	16.26%	1.03%

Volatility and Risk

Citizens Community Bancorp has a beta of 1.06, meaning that its stock price is 6% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Wayne Savings Bancshares has a beta of 0.28, meaning that its stock price is 72% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Citizens Community Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Wayne Savings Bancshares pays an annual dividend of $0.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. Citizens Community Bancorp pays out 24.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Wayne Savings Bancshares pays out 28.7% 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.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Citizens Community Bancorp and Wayne Savings Bancshares, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Citizens Community Bancorp	0	0	1	0	3.00
Wayne Savings Bancshares	0	0	0	0	N/A

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Citizens Community Bancorp and Wayne Savings Bancshares”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Citizens Community Bancorp	$94.50 million	1.53	$13.06 million	$1.29	10.87
Wayne Savings Bancshares	$38.11 million	1.40	$7.83 million	$3.21	7.56

Citizens Community Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than Wayne Savings Bancshares. Wayne Savings Bancshares 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.

Summary

Citizens Community Bancorp beats Wayne Savings Bancshares on 9 of the 14 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 Wayne Savings Bancshares

Wayne Savings Bancshares, Inc. operates as the holding company for Wayne Savings Community Bank that provides personal and business banking products and services to individuals, businesses, and other organizations. The company offers checking, savings, money market, and term certificate accounts, as well as certificates of deposit. It also provides residential mortgage, commercial, installment, residential and nonresidential real estate, commercial real estate, residential construction, multi-family real estate, land, commercial business, consumer, home, home equity, auto, recreational vehicle, personal, furniture and appliance, agriculture, and term loans, as well as lines of credit, government guaranteed programs, and standby letters of credit. In addition, the company offers retirement planning, investment advisory, insurance, and wealth management and trust services. Further, it provides overdraft protection, re-order check, remote deposit capture, merchant, sweep, online and mobile banking, and bill pay services, as well as debit, credit, and gift cards. The company was founded in 1899 and is based in Wooster, Ohio.