Analyzing Banco Santander Chile (NYSE:BSAC) and Citizens & Northern (NASDAQ:CZNC)

Citizens & Northern (NASDAQ:CZNC) and Banco Santander Chile (NYSE:BSAC) 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.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations for Citizens & Northern and Banco Santander Chile, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Citizens & Northern	0	2	1	0	2.33
Banco Santander Chile	1	4	3	1	2.44

Citizens & Northern presently has a consensus price target of $23.50, suggesting a potential downside of 8.31%. Banco Santander Chile has a consensus price target of $35.20, suggesting a potential upside of 6.82%. Given Banco Santander Chile’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Banco Santander Chile is more favorable than Citizens & Northern.

Risk & Volatility

Citizens & Northern has a beta of 0.41, meaning that its stock price is 59% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Banco Santander Chile has a beta of 0.49, meaning that its stock price is 51% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

30.8% of Citizens & Northern shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 6.4% of Banco Santander Chile shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.7% of Citizens & Northern 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.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Citizens & Northern and Banco Santander Chile”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Citizens & Northern	$170.03 million	2.70	$23.43 million	$1.48	17.32
Banco Santander Chile	$4.50 billion	3.45	$1.12 billion	$2.62	12.58

Banco Santander Chile has higher revenue and earnings than Citizens & Northern. Banco Santander Chile is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Citizens & Northern, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Citizens & Northern and Banco Santander Chile’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Citizens & Northern	13.28%	9.54%	1.04%
Banco Santander Chile	27.04%	22.94%	1.70%

Dividends

Citizens & Northern pays an annual dividend of $1.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.4%. Banco Santander Chile pays an annual dividend of $1.10 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. Citizens & Northern pays out 75.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Banco Santander Chile pays out 42.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Summary

Banco Santander Chile beats Citizens & Northern on 13 of the 17 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 Banco Santander Chile

Banco Santander-Chile, together with its subsidiaries, provides commercial and retail banking services in Chile. It operates through Retail Banking, Middle-Market, Corporate Investment Banking, and Corporate Activities segments. The company offers debit and credit cards, checking accounts, and savings products; consumer, automobile, commercial, mortgage, and government-guaranteed loans; and Chilean peso and foreign currency-denominated loans to finance various commercial transactions, trade, foreign currency forward contracts, and credit lines, as well as mortgage financing services. It also provides mutual fund management, insurance and securities brokerage, foreign exchange services, financial leasing, financial consulting and advisory, investment management, foreign trade, leasing, factoring, treasury, and transactional services, as well as specialized services to finance residential projects. In addition, the company offers short-term financing and fundraising, and brokerage services, as well as derivatives, securitization, and other products; and manages capital allocations. It serves individuals, small to middle-sized entities, companies, and large corporations, as well as universities, government entities, and local and regional governments. The company was incorporated in 1977 and is headquartered in Santiago, Chile. Banco Santander-Chile operates as a subsidiary of Banco Santander, S.A.