Citizens & Northern (NASDAQ:CZNC) Upgraded to “Strong-Buy” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Citizens & Northern (NASDAQ:CZNC) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a report published on Saturday morning,Wall Street Zen reports.

CZNC has been the subject of several other research reports. Weiss Ratings raised Citizens & Northern from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Citizens & Northern from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, July 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Citizens & Northern presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $23.50.

Citizens & Northern Trading Down 1.3%

Citizens & Northern stock opened at $24.94 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $447.17 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.85 and a beta of 0.41. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $25.63 and a 200-day moving average of $23.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.91. Citizens & Northern has a one year low of $18.87 and a one year high of $26.37.

Citizens & Northern (NASDAQ:CZNC) last released its earnings results on Friday, August 7th. The financial services provider reported $0.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $39.65 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $38.60 million. Citizens & Northern had a return on equity of 9.54% and a net margin of 13.28%. On average, equities analysts expect that Citizens & Northern will post 2.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Citizens & Northern Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 3rd were paid a $0.28 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 3rd. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.5%. Citizens & Northern’s dividend payout ratio is currently 75.68%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CZNC. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in shares of Citizens & Northern in the second quarter valued at $2,859,000. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Citizens & Northern during the 2nd quarter worth about $31,685,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Citizens & Northern during the 2nd quarter worth about $977,000. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC bought a new stake in shares of Citizens & Northern during the 1st quarter worth about $1,498,000. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC acquired a new position in Citizens & Northern in the 2nd quarter valued at about $450,000. 30.83% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Citizens & Northern

Citizens & Northern Corporation is a bank holding company for Citizens & Northern Bank, a community banking institution headquartered in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, the bank serves individuals, families, farmers, businesses and organizations through a network of offices in north-central Pennsylvania and southern New York.

Citizens & Northern Bank offers a range of traditional banking products, including checking and savings accounts, certificates of deposit, consumer loans, residential mortgages, commercial loans and agricultural lending.