Citizens & Northern Co. (NASDAQ:CZNC) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

Citizens & Northern Co. (NASDAQ:CZNC) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of May. As of May 15th, there was short interest totalling 138,600 shares, an increase of 49.4% from the April 30th total of 92,800 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 29,600 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.7 days. Approximately 0.9% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Terry L. Lehman bought 1,400 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 29th. The stock was bought at an average price of $18.70 per share, with a total value of $26,180.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 28,237 shares in the company, valued at $528,031.90. This represents a 5.22% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders purchased a total of 2,210 shares of company stock valued at $41,542 over the last 90 days. 4.49% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Citizens & Northern

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in Citizens & Northern by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 558,315 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $10,385,000 after acquiring an additional 8,117 shares in the last quarter. Citizens & Northern Corp raised its holdings in Citizens & Northern by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Citizens & Northern Corp now owns 338,687 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,300,000 after acquiring an additional 10,392 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in Citizens & Northern by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 134,330 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,499,000 after acquiring an additional 6,814 shares in the last quarter. Stone House Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Citizens & Northern by 95.1% in the first quarter. Stone House Investment Management LLC now owns 98,639 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,985,000 after acquiring an additional 48,074 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its holdings in Citizens & Northern by 11.6% in the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 59,865 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,113,000 after acquiring an additional 6,224 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 30.83% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Citizens & Northern from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th.

Citizens & Northern Trading Down 0.7%

NASDAQ CZNC opened at $18.68 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $19.19 and a 200-day simple moving average of $19.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 0.95. Citizens & Northern has a one year low of $16.50 and a one year high of $22.68. The firm has a market cap of $289.45 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.05 and a beta of 0.53.

Citizens & Northern (NASDAQ:CZNC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.41 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.44 by ($0.03). Citizens & Northern had a net margin of 16.50% and a return on equity of 9.71%. The business had revenue of $27.19 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $28.30 million. Equities research analysts anticipate that Citizens & Northern will post 1.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Citizens & Northern Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Sunday, May 4th were issued a $0.28 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 2nd. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.00%. Citizens & Northern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 64.00%.

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.