Short Interest in Citizens & Northern Co. (NASDAQ:CZNC) Declines By 14.3%

Citizens & Northern Co. (NASDAQ:CZNC) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest during the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 58,000 shares, a decline of 14.3% from the February 13th total of 67,700 shares. Currently, 0.4% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 37,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.6 days.

Citizens & Northern Trading Up 1.8 %

NASDAQ CZNC traded up $0.36 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $20.80. The company had a trading volume of 13,587 shares, compared to its average volume of 26,140. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $20.49 and a 200 day moving average of $19.85. Citizens & Northern has a 1-year low of $16.50 and a 1-year high of $22.68. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $321.75 million, a P/E ratio of 12.31 and a beta of 0.44.

Citizens & Northern (NASDAQ:CZNC) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.08. Citizens & Northern had a net margin of 16.50% and a return on equity of 9.71%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Citizens & Northern will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Citizens & Northern Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a dividend of $0.28 per share. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.38%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This is a boost from Citizens & Northern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. Citizens & Northern’s dividend payout ratio is currently 66.27%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CZNC has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler raised shares of Citizens & Northern to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. StockNews.com cut shares of Citizens & Northern from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th.

Institutional Trading of Citizens & Northern

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Citizens & Northern by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 558,315 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $10,385,000 after purchasing an additional 8,117 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Citizens & Northern by 1.2% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 345,823 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,811,000 after purchasing an additional 4,243 shares in the last quarter. Citizens & Northern Corp lifted its position in shares of Citizens & Northern by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Citizens & Northern Corp now owns 338,687 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,300,000 after purchasing an additional 10,392 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Citizens & Northern by 1.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 308,868 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,082,000 after purchasing an additional 3,297 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of Citizens & Northern by 5.3% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 134,330 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,499,000 after buying an additional 6,814 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 30.83% of the company’s stock.

Citizens & Northern Company Profile

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.