Citizens & Northern Co. (NASDAQ:CZNC) Short Interest Up 24.0% in March

Citizens & Northern Co. (NASDAQ:CZNC) saw a large increase in short interest in the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 71,900 shares, an increase of 24.0% from the February 28th total of 58,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 35,500 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.0 days. Approximately 0.5% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Citizens & Northern

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp grew its position in Citizens & Northern by 1.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 308,868 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,082,000 after acquiring an additional 3,297 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Citizens & Northern by 290.1% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 19,388 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $381,000 after purchasing an additional 14,418 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Citizens & Northern by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 345,823 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,811,000 after purchasing an additional 4,243 shares during the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in shares of Citizens & Northern during the 3rd quarter valued at about $37,000. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in shares of Citizens & Northern by 186.3% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 24,032 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $473,000 after buying an additional 15,637 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 30.83% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com lowered Citizens & Northern from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th.

Citizens & Northern Price Performance

NASDAQ:CZNC traded up $0.15 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $20.11. The stock had a trading volume of 4,673 shares, compared to its average volume of 33,641. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $20.83 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $19.93. The firm has a market capitalization of $311.02 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.90 and a beta of 0.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.95. Citizens & Northern has a one year low of $16.50 and a one year high of $22.68.

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

Citizens & Northern Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd were paid a $0.28 dividend. This is an increase from Citizens & Northern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.57%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. Citizens & Northern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 66.27%.

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.