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

Citizens & Northern Co. (NASDAQ:CZNC) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest during 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 short-interest ratio is currently 2.0 days. Currently, 0.5% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have weighed in on CZNC shares. StockNews.com cut shares of Citizens & Northern from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Piper Sandler upgraded Citizens & Northern to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, December 2nd.

Citizens & Northern Stock Down 0.2 %

NASDAQ CZNC opened at $20.12 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $311.18 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.91 and a beta of 0.44. 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 company has a 50 day moving average of $20.82 and a 200-day moving average of $19.93.

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

Citizens & Northern Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a $0.28 dividend. This is a positive change from Citizens & Northern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend 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%.

Institutional Trading of Citizens & Northern

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Millennium Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Citizens & Northern by 270.6% in the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 40,704 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $757,000 after purchasing an additional 29,722 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in Citizens & Northern by 117.5% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 52,275 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $972,000 after buying an additional 28,243 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new position in Citizens & Northern in the fourth quarter valued at about $429,000. Marshall Wace LLP acquired a new position in Citizens & Northern during the fourth quarter worth about $382,000. Finally, Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in shares of Citizens & Northern by 290.1% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 19,388 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $381,000 after acquiring an additional 14,418 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 30.83% of the company’s stock.

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.