Legal & General Group Plc Sells 3,585,471 Shares of Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C)

Legal & General Group Plc decreased its stake in Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) by 21.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,413,988 shares of the company’s stock after selling 3,585,471 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 0.71% of Citigroup worth $944,211,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Core Alternative Capital lifted its holdings in Citigroup by 83.4% during the fourth quarter. Core Alternative Capital now owns 376 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 171 shares in the last quarter. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in Citigroup in the 3rd quarter worth $31,000. Webster Bank N. A. increased its stake in Citigroup by 150.0% in the 4th quarter. Webster Bank N. A. now owns 500 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Creative Capital Management Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Citigroup in the fourth quarter valued at about $35,000. Finally, Sierra Ocean LLC bought a new position in shares of Citigroup in the fourth quarter worth about $37,000. Institutional investors own 71.72% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently commented on C shares. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on Citigroup from $79.00 to $76.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $83.00 price objective (up previously from $80.00) on shares of Citigroup in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on shares of Citigroup from $90.00 to $80.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Barclays raised shares of Citigroup from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Citigroup from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, March 30th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $83.23.

Insider Transactions at Citigroup

In other news, COO Anand Selvakesari sold 30,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.10, for a total value of $2,433,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 229,180 shares in the company, valued at $18,586,498. This represents a 11.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Mark Mason sold 58,465 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.21, for a total value of $4,864,872.65. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 217,331 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,084,112.51. The trade was a 21.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 103,590 shares of company stock valued at $8,523,149 in the last quarter. 0.08% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Citigroup Trading Down 8.0 %

NYSE C opened at $58.00 on Monday. Citigroup Inc. has a one year low of $53.51 and a one year high of $84.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 0.96. The company has a market capitalization of $109.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 1.29. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $75.61 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $71.11.

Citigroup (NYSE:C) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 15th. The company reported $1.34 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.22 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $19.58 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $19.51 billion. Citigroup had a net margin of 7.43% and a return on equity of 6.62%. Citigroup’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.84 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Citigroup Inc. will post 7.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Citigroup Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 23rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 5th will be given a dividend of $0.56 per share. This represents a $2.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 5th. Citigroup’s payout ratio is 37.65%.

Citigroup announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Wednesday, January 15th that permits the company to buyback $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to purchase up to 13.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board 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.