Advisory Alpha LLC Sells 459 Shares of Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C)

Advisory Alpha LLC cut its stake in shares of Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) by 9.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,543 shares of the company’s stock after selling 459 shares during the period. Advisory Alpha LLC’s holdings in Citigroup were worth $320,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in shares of Citigroup by 18.5% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 30,027,213 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,998,976,000 after purchasing an additional 4,680,713 shares during the period. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec increased its holdings in Citigroup by 70.0% in the 3rd quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 4,531,827 shares of the company’s stock worth $283,692,000 after acquiring an additional 1,865,628 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in Citigroup by 32.2% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 7,115,440 shares of the company’s stock worth $501,994,000 after acquiring an additional 1,731,527 shares during the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Citigroup by 9.8% in the 3rd quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 15,676,463 shares of the company’s stock worth $981,347,000 after acquiring an additional 1,404,120 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc increased its holdings in Citigroup by 5.5% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 17,428,251 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,105,999,000 after acquiring an additional 913,231 shares during the last quarter. 71.72% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have weighed in on C shares. Bank of America lifted their target price on Citigroup from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Truist Financial assumed coverage on Citigroup in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. They set a “buy” rating and a $85.00 target price for the company. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $83.00 price objective (up previously from $80.00) on shares of Citigroup in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Citigroup from $69.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Oppenheimer cut their price objective on Citigroup from $110.00 to $102.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $83.93.

Citigroup Stock Performance

Shares of C stock opened at $81.98 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 0.96. Citigroup Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $52.24 and a fifty-two week high of $82.77. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $72.21 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $66.00. The company has a market capitalization of $155.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.78, a PEG ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 1.43.

Citigroup (NYSE:C) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 15th. The company reported $1.34 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.22 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $19.58 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $19.51 billion. Citigroup had a return on equity of 6.62% and a net margin of 7.43%. The business’s revenue was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.84 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Citigroup Inc. will post 7.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Citigroup Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd will be paid a $0.56 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $2.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.73%. Citigroup’s payout ratio is 37.65%.

Citigroup announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Wednesday, January 15th that permits the company to repurchase $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to purchase up to 13.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Citigroup Company Profile

Citigroup Inc, a diversified financial service holding company, provides various financial product and services to consumers, corporations, governments, and institutions worldwide. It operates through five segments: Services, Markets, Banking, U.S. Personal Banking, and Wealth. The Services segment includes Treasury and Trade Solutions, which provides cash management, trade, and working capital solutions to multinational corporations, financial institutions, and public sector organizations; and Securities Services, such as cross-border support for clients, local market expertise, post-trade technologies, data solutions, and various securities services solutions.