Citizens & Northern (NASDAQ:CZNC) Rating Lowered to "Buy" at Wall Street Zen

Key Points

• Wall Street Zen downgraded Citizens & Northern from “strong buy” to “buy,” while the broader analyst consensus remains “Hold” with a $23.50 price target.
• Citizens & Northern exceeded quarterly expectations, reporting $0.79 EPS versus the $0.63 estimate and revenue of $39.65 million compared with the $38.60 million consensus.
• Institutional investors own 30.83% of the company, with BlackRock making the largest recent investment at approximately $31.7 million.

Citizens & Northern (NASDAQ:CZNC - Get Free Report) was downgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a note issued to investors on Sunday, Wall Street Zen reports.

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

Citizens & Northern Price Performance

NASDAQ CZNC opened at $25.50 on Friday. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $25.63 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $23.70. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. Citizens & Northern has a 12-month low of $18.87 and a 12-month high of $26.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $457.21 million, a P/E ratio of 17.23 and a beta of 0.41.

Citizens & Northern (NASDAQ:CZNC - Get Free Report) last issued 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 business had revenue of $39.65 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $38.60 million. Analysts forecast that Citizens & Northern will post 2.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Citizens & Northern

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Citizens & Northern during the second quarter worth $31,685,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in Citizens & Northern in the second quarter valued at $2,859,000. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC purchased a new position in Citizens & Northern in the first quarter valued at $1,498,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new position in Citizens & Northern in the second quarter valued at $977,000. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC acquired a new position in shares of Citizens & Northern in the second quarter worth about $450,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 30.83% of the company's stock.

Citizens & Northern Company Profile

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.

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