Citizens Community Bancorp (NASDAQ:CZWI) and Catalyst Bancorp (NASDAQ:CLST) Critical Contrast

Citizens Community Bancorp (NASDAQ:CZWI – Get Rating) and Catalyst Bancorp (NASDAQ:CLST – Get Rating) 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, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings, profitability and risk.

Volatility & Risk

Citizens Community Bancorp has a beta of 0.92, indicating that its share price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Catalyst Bancorp has a beta of 0.07, indicating that its share price is 93% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Citizens Community Bancorp and Catalyst Bancorp, 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
Catalyst Bancorp	0	0	0	0	N/A

Citizens Community Bancorp currently has a consensus price target of $13.00, indicating a potential upside of 19.60%. Given Citizens Community Bancorp’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Citizens Community Bancorp is more favorable than Catalyst Bancorp.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

55.9% of Citizens Community Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 20.0% of Catalyst Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 5.1% of Citizens Community Bancorp shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.6% of Catalyst Bancorp shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Citizens Community Bancorp and Catalyst Bancorp’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	$79.83 million	1.43	$17.76 million	$1.69	6.43
Catalyst Bancorp	$9.19 million	6.86	$180,000.00	$0.05	238.25

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

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Citizens Community Bancorp	22.25%	11.18%	1.04%
Catalyst Bancorp	2.14%	0.21%	0.07%

Summary

Citizens Community Bancorp beats Catalyst Bancorp on 11 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Citizens Community Bancorp

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Citizens Community Bancorp, Inc. operates as a bank holding company for Citizens Community Federal Bank. It provides commercial, agricultural and consumer banking services. The company was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Eau Claire, WI.

About Catalyst Bancorp

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Catalyst Bancorp, Inc. operates as a holding company for Catalyst Bank that provides commercial and retail banking products. The company accepts various deposit products, including savings accounts, demand and NOW accounts, money market accounts, and certificates of deposit. It also offers single-family residential first mortgage loans, commercial real estate mortgage loans, multi-family residential mortgage loans, commercial and industrial loans, construction and land loans, consumer loans, and other loans. In addition, the company invests in various types of securities comprising mortgage-backed securities, the U.S. treasury obligations, securities of various federal agencies and of state and municipal governments, certificates of deposit at federally insured banks and savings institutions, and federal funds. It operates through six full-service branches located in Carencro, Eunice, Lafayette, Opelousas, and Port Barre. The company was founded in 1922 and is headquartered in Opelousas, Louisiana.