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

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Citizens & Northern (NASDAQ:CZNC) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research report released on Sunday.

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

Citizens & Northern Price Performance

Shares of CZNC opened at $25.78 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $462.24 million, a PE ratio of 17.42 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $24.12 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $22.93. Citizens & Northern has a 1-year low of $18.87 and a 1-year high of $26.26.

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

Citizens & Northern Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 3rd were issued a $0.28 dividend. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 3rd. Citizens & Northern’s payout ratio is 75.68%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Citizens & Northern

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Citizens & Northern in the 2nd quarter worth $31,685,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Citizens & Northern by 2.3% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 823,059 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $16,305,000 after buying an additional 18,165 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Citizens & Northern by 2.7% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 620,287 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $13,857,000 after buying an additional 16,030 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Citizens & Northern by 13.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 416,153 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $8,396,000 after buying an additional 50,343 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp grew its holdings in Citizens & Northern by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 322,819 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,511,000 after buying an additional 4,806 shares in the last quarter. 30.83% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Citizens & Northern

Citizens & Northern Corporation is the bank holding company for Citizens & Northern Bank, a community-oriented financial institution headquartered in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania. Chartered in 1888, the company has cultivated deep roots in north central Pennsylvania and selected counties in upstate New York, offering a broad spectrum of banking services tailored to individuals, families and local businesses.

Through its flagship banking subsidiary, Citizens & Northern provides personal deposit products such as checking and savings accounts, certificates of deposit and money market accounts.