Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) Position Lessened by Empirical Finance LLC

Empirical Finance LLC lowered its position in Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) by 1.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 66,378 shares of the company’s stock after selling 976 shares during the quarter. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Citigroup were worth $4,672,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of C. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings 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 valued at $1,998,976,000 after acquiring an additional 4,680,713 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB boosted its position in Citigroup by 90.2% during the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 8,326,745 shares of the company’s stock worth $586,120,000 after purchasing an additional 3,947,912 shares during the period. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec grew its holdings in Citigroup by 70.0% during the third quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 4,531,827 shares of the company’s stock valued at $283,692,000 after purchasing an additional 1,865,628 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in shares of Citigroup by 32.2% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 7,115,440 shares of the company’s stock valued at $501,994,000 after purchasing an additional 1,731,527 shares during the period. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its stake in shares of Citigroup by 103.6% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 48,500 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,414,000 after buying an additional 1,410,950 shares during the last quarter. 71.72% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on C. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Citigroup from $104.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $83.00 price objective (up from $80.00) on shares of Citigroup in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on Citigroup from $69.00 to $79.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Barclays raised Citigroup from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price target on Citigroup from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Citigroup currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $83.93.

Citigroup Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of Citigroup stock opened at $81.73 on Friday. Citigroup Inc. has a 52-week low of $52.24 and a 52-week high of $82.91. The firm has a market capitalization of $154.57 billion, a PE ratio of 13.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.96. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $74.67 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $67.16.

Citigroup (NYSE:C) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The company reported $1.34 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.22 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $19.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $19.51 billion. Citigroup had a net margin of 7.43% and a return on equity of 6.62%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.84 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Citigroup Inc. will post 7.53 EPS for the current year.

Citigroup announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, January 15th that authorizes the company to repurchase $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to repurchase up to 13.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Citigroup Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be issued a $0.56 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $2.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.74%. Citigroup’s payout ratio is presently 37.65%.

About Citigroup

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.