ChoiceOne Financial Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:COFS) Sees Significant Drop in Short Interest

ChoiceOne Financial Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:COFS) was the recipient of a large drop in short interest in the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 76,700 shares, a drop of 86.1% from the February 28th total of 550,200 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 36,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.1 days. Approximately 0.9% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Institutional Trading of ChoiceOne Financial Services

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Mattson Financial Services LLC lifted its stake in shares of ChoiceOne Financial Services by 58.0% in the 4th quarter. Mattson Financial Services LLC now owns 2,575 shares of the company’s stock valued at $92,000 after acquiring an additional 945 shares during the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC raised its position in ChoiceOne Financial Services by 19.1% in the fourth quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 19,457 shares of the company’s stock valued at $693,000 after purchasing an additional 3,127 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG boosted its stake in shares of ChoiceOne Financial Services by 108.1% during the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 8,457 shares of the company’s stock valued at $301,000 after purchasing an additional 4,393 shares in the last quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of ChoiceOne Financial Services by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 56,889 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,028,000 after purchasing an additional 1,329 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Citadel Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of ChoiceOne Financial Services by 10.6% during the fourth quarter. Citadel Advisors LLC now owns 24,286 shares of the company’s stock worth $866,000 after purchasing an additional 2,321 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 19.90% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

COFS has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. DA Davidson cut their target price on ChoiceOne Financial Services from $41.00 to $39.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Janney Montgomery Scott upgraded shares of ChoiceOne Financial Services from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, Hovde Group assumed coverage on shares of ChoiceOne Financial Services in a research report on Monday, March 10th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $35.00 target price for the company.

ChoiceOne Financial Services Price Performance

Shares of COFS stock traded down $0.39 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $28.83. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 15,898 shares, compared to its average volume of 25,881. ChoiceOne Financial Services has a fifty-two week low of $21.52 and a fifty-two week high of $38.15. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $31.80 and its 200-day simple moving average is $33.03. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99. The company has a market capitalization of $258.53 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.85 and a beta of 0.72.

ChoiceOne Financial Services (NASDAQ:COFS) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The company reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82 by $0.01. ChoiceOne Financial Services had a return on equity of 12.44% and a net margin of 19.21%. Sell-side analysts forecast that ChoiceOne Financial Services will post 3.67 earnings per share for the current year.

ChoiceOne Financial Services Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.28 dividend. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.89%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. ChoiceOne Financial Services’s payout ratio is 34.36%.

About ChoiceOne Financial Services

ChoiceOne Financial Services, Inc operates as the bank holding company for ChoiceOne Bank that provides banking services to corporations, partnerships, and individuals in Michigan. The company offers various deposit products, including time, savings, and demand deposits, safe deposit, and automated transaction machine services.