Citizens Financial Services (NASDAQ:CZFS) Lowered to Hold Rating by Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Citizens Financial Services (NASDAQ:CZFS) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Citizens Financial Services from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Citizens Financial Services from a “hold (c)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy”.

Citizens Financial Services Stock Down 2.3%

Shares of CZFS opened at $80.40 on Friday. Citizens Financial Services has a 52-week low of $52.35 and a 52-week high of $83.37. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $71.71 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $66.43. The company has a market capitalization of $386.32 million, a PE ratio of 9.40 and a beta of 0.35.

Citizens Financial Services (NASDAQ:CZFS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The company reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.98 by $0.14. Citizens Financial Services had a net margin of 23.31% and a return on equity of 12.20%. The firm had revenue of $29.71 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $29.30 million. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Citizens Financial Services will post 8.72 EPS for the current year.

Citizens Financial Services Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 12th were given a $0.51 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 12th. This represents a $2.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.5%. This is an increase from Citizens Financial Services’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Citizens Financial Services’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.86%.

Institutional Trading of Citizens Financial Services

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Lawood & Co. acquired a new position in shares of Citizens Financial Services in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $612,000. Strs Ohio lifted its holdings in Citizens Financial Services by 16.4% during the 4th quarter. Strs Ohio now owns 6,400 shares of the company’s stock worth $365,000 after buying an additional 900 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in Citizens Financial Services by 12.5% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 4,591 shares of the company’s stock valued at $277,000 after buying an additional 510 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its position in Citizens Financial Services by 39.4% in the 2nd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 658 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 186 shares during the period. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada grew its stake in shares of Citizens Financial Services by 93.5% in the fourth quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 447 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 216 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 22.49% of the company’s stock.

Citizens Financial Services Company Profile

Citizens Financial Services, Inc (NASDAQ:CZFS) is a bank holding company headquartered in Elderton, Pennsylvania, providing a range of retail and commercial banking services through its primary subsidiary, Citizens Savings Bank. The company offers deposit products such as checking and savings accounts, money market accounts and certificates of deposit, supported by online and mobile banking platforms tailored to personal and business clients.

Beyond deposit-taking, Citizens Financial Services underwrites a variety of lending products, including residential mortgage loans, home equity financing, commercial real estate loans, construction lending and consumer installment loans.