Comparing WSFS Financial (NASDAQ:WSFS) & Citizens Community Bancorp (NASDAQ:CZWI)

Citizens Community Bancorp (NASDAQ:CZWI) and WSFS Financial (NASDAQ:WSFS) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, risk, valuation, profitability and institutional ownership.

Risk & Volatility

Citizens Community Bancorp has a beta of 0.66, meaning that its stock price is 34% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, WSFS Financial has a beta of 0.79, meaning that its stock price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Citizens Community Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.42 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. WSFS Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. Citizens Community Bancorp pays out 28.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. WSFS Financial pays out 13.3% 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 6 consecutive years and WSFS Financial has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Citizens Community Bancorp is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Profitability

This table compares Citizens Community Bancorp and WSFS Financial’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Citizens Community Bancorp	14.60%	7.86%	0.83%
WSFS Financial	21.14%	10.89%	1.41%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations for Citizens Community Bancorp and WSFS Financial, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Citizens Community Bancorp	0	2	0	0	2.00
WSFS Financial	0	3	3	1	2.71

WSFS Financial has a consensus price target of $69.00, suggesting a potential upside of 3.48%. Given WSFS Financial’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe WSFS Financial is more favorable than Citizens Community Bancorp.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Citizens Community Bancorp and WSFS Financial”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Citizens Community Bancorp	$98.77 million	1.81	$14.42 million	$1.46	12.66
WSFS Financial	$1.36 billion	2.68	$287.35 million	$5.10	13.07

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

55.1% of Citizens Community Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 88.5% of WSFS Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.9% of Citizens Community Bancorp shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of WSFS Financial shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

WSFS Financial beats Citizens Community Bancorp on 15 of the 18 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 WSFS Financial

WSFS Financial Corporation operates as the savings and loan holding company for the Wilmington Savings Fund Society, FSB that provides various banking services in the United States. It operates through three segments: WSFS Bank, Cash Connect, and Wealth Management. It offers various deposit products, including savings accounts, demand deposits, interest-bearing demand deposits, money market deposit accounts, and certificates of deposit, as well as accepts jumbo certificates of deposit from individuals, businesses, and municipalities. The company also provides a range of loans, which comprise fixed and adjustable rate residential loans; commercial mortgage and commercial loans; commercial construction loans; commercial loans for working capital, financing equipment and real estate acquisitions, business expansion and other business purposes; and consumer credit products, such as home equity loans, home equity lines of credit, automobile loans, unsecured lines of credit, and other secured and unsecured personal installment loans. In addition, it offers insurance products; planning and advisory services, investment management, trust services, and credit and deposit products to individual, corporate and institutional clients; retail securities and insurance brokerage services; mortgage and title services; residential mortgage and refinancing solutions; and leases small equipment and fixed assets, as well as provides financial planning, customized investment strategies, brokerage products, fiduciary, and wealth management services. Further, the company provides ATM vault cash, smart safe, and other cash logistics services; and online reporting and ATM cash management, predictive cash ordering and reconcilement services, armored carrier management, loss protection, and deposit safe cash logistics services, as well as trustee, agency, bankruptcy administration, custodial and commercial domicile services. The company was founded in 1832 and is based in Wilmington, Delaware.