Citizens Bancshares Corp

We decided to sell our shares back to Citizens to allocate to what we felt were better opportunities. Citizens is cheap with a price-to-earnings multiple of roughly seven and certainly trades well below adjusted book value if we assume the ECIP preferred can be repurchased at 28% of face value. It has been more than three years since receiving the funds and Citizens and most other ECIP recipient banks have done little. We had expected if internal growth was not possible that the funds would be used for acquisitions, which has yet to be the case. We still believe Citizens has an incredible opportunity to grow and better serve their customer base and shareholders; however they seem too cautious in our opinion.

Citizens Bancshares Corp. (CZBS) earned over $7 of EPS when adjusting for the amount paid on their preferred dividends in 2024, putting them at 7x adjusted trailing earnings. They continue to trade at a substantial discount to their adjusted BVPS of $85/share vs a stock price of $47 and just announced a share buyback for $4 million. This indicates a strong potential for value appreciation as the market recognizes their earnings power and the intrinsic value of their shares.

Citizens Bancshares is an Atlanta-based bank that has received $95.7 million in additional capital through the US Treasury’s Emergency Capital Investment Program. The bank has reduced its share count by 10% over the last two years and has a strong earnings run rate of approximately $7.50 per share. The stock is considered an incredible bargain at seven times earnings for a massively overcapitalized bank that is shareholder friendly. The expectation is for Citizens to either make an acquisition or increase organic growth while continuing to return capital to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases.

Citizens Bancshares is an Atlanta-based bank that has received $95.7 million in additional capital through the US Treasury’s Emergency Capital Investment Program. The stock is currently trading at an incredible bargain of seven times earnings for a massively overcapitalized bank that is shareholder friendly. With an annualized earnings run rate of roughly $7.50 per share, the bank has reduced its share count by 10% over the last two years and continues to return capital to shareholders via dividends and share repurchases. We expect them to either make an acquisition or increase organic growth.

Citizens Bancshares is an Atlanta-based bank that has received $95.7 million in additional capital through the US Treasury’s Emergency Capital Investment Program. The stock is currently trading at an incredible bargain of seven times earnings for a massively overcapitalized bank that is shareholder friendly. With an annualized earnings run rate of roughly $7.50 per share, the bank has reduced its share count by 10% over the last two years and continues to return capital to shareholders via dividends and share repurchases. We expect them to either make an acquisition or increase organic growth.

Citizens Bancshares is an Atlanta-based bank that has received $95.7 million in additional capital through the US Treasury’s Emergency Capital Investment Program. The stock is currently trading at an incredible bargain of seven times earnings for a massively overcapitalized bank that is shareholder friendly. With an annualized earnings run rate of roughly $7.50 per share, the bank has reduced its share count by 10% over the last two years and continues to return capital to shareholders via dividends and share repurchases. We expect them to either make an acquisition or increase organic growth.