Citizens Community Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:CZWI) Short Interest Up 111.0% in March

Citizens Community Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:CZWI - Get Free Report) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 30,600 shares, an increase of 111.0% from the February 29th total of 14,500 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 29,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.0 days. Approximately 0.3% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Institutional Trading of Citizens Community Bancorp

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in Citizens Community Bancorp by 7.8% during the second quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 19,646 shares of the bank's stock valued at $174,000 after acquiring an additional 1,419 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC purchased a new position in Citizens Community Bancorp during the fourth quarter valued at $178,000. Jane Street Group LLC purchased a new position in Citizens Community Bancorp during the fourth quarter valued at $281,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its stake in Citizens Community Bancorp by 46.5% during the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 27,566 shares of the bank's stock valued at $332,000 after acquiring an additional 8,751 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley grew its stake in Citizens Community Bancorp by 47.5% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 27,835 shares of the bank's stock valued at $335,000 after acquiring an additional 8,962 shares in the last quarter. 55.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on CZWI. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Citizens Community Bancorp in a research report on Sunday, March 10th. They set a "hold" rating on the stock. Hovde Group upgraded shares of Citizens Community Bancorp from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, March 4th.

Citizens Community Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of CZWI stock remained flat at $12.15 on Thursday. 6,051 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 31,258. The stock has a market cap of $127.09 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.76 and a beta of 1.00. Citizens Community Bancorp has a 12-month low of $7.61 and a 12-month high of $12.61. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $11.98 and a 200 day moving average price of $10.89. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46.

Citizens Community Bancorp (NASDAQ:CZWI - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 29th. The bank reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $24.51 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.90 million. Citizens Community Bancorp had a net margin of 13.82% and a return on equity of 7.99%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Citizens Community Bancorp will post 1.23 EPS for the current year.

Citizens Community Bancorp Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed an annual dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 9th were given a dividend of $0.32 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 2.6%. This is an increase from Citizens Community Bancorp's previous annual dividend of $0.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 8th. Citizens Community Bancorp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.60%.

About Citizens Community Bancorp

Citizens Community Bancorp, Inc operates as a bank holding company for Citizens Community Federal N.A. that provides various traditional community banking services to businesses, agricultural operators, and consumers. The company accepts various deposit products, including demand deposits, savings and money market accounts, and certificates of deposit.

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