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

Citizens Community Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:CZWI) saw a significant growth in short interest in the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 30,600 shares, a growth of 111.0% from the February 29th total of 14,500 shares. Currently, 0.3% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 29,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.0 days.

Institutional Trading of Citizens Community Bancorp

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CZWI. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of Citizens Community Bancorp by 7.8% during the second quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 19,646 shares of the bank’s stock worth $174,000 after purchasing an additional 1,419 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC acquired a new stake in Citizens Community Bancorp in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $178,000. Jane Street Group LLC acquired a new stake in Citizens Community Bancorp in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $281,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its holdings in Citizens Community Bancorp by 46.5% in 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 raised its holdings in Citizens Community Bancorp by 47.5% in 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. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 55.11% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Citizens Community Bancorp in a research report on Sunday, March 10th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. 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 remained flat at $12.15 during mid-day trading on Thursday. 6,051 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 31,258. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 0.98. Citizens Community Bancorp has a 12-month low of $7.61 and a 12-month high of $12.61. The company has a 50-day moving average of $11.98 and a two-hundred day moving average of $10.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $127.09 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.76 and a beta of 1.00.

Citizens Community Bancorp (NASDAQ:CZWI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 29th. The bank reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $24.51 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.90 million. Citizens Community Bancorp had a net margin of 13.82% and a return on equity of 7.99%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Citizens Community Bancorp will post 1.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Citizens Community Bancorp Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced an annual dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 9th were paid a dividend of $0.32 per share. This represents a yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 8th. This is a positive change from Citizens Community Bancorp’s previous annual dividend of $0.29. Citizens Community Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.60%.

Citizens Community Bancorp Company Profile

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.