Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C - Get Free Report) saw unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Traders acquired 591,300 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 213% compared to the average daily volume of 188,627 call options.
Institutional Investors Weigh In On Citigroup
Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of C. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in Citigroup by 18.4% during the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 29,756,568 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,881,805,000 after purchasing an additional 4,620,867 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Citigroup by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 24,755,277 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,273,411,000 after purchasing an additional 1,836,283 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Citigroup by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 20,051,311 shares of the company's stock valued at $824,710,000 after purchasing an additional 232,652 shares in the last quarter. Putnam Investments LLC increased its stake in Citigroup by 7.9% during the 4th quarter. Putnam Investments LLC now owns 17,775,952 shares of the company's stock valued at $914,395,000 after purchasing an additional 1,300,520 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Citigroup during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $867,599,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.72% of the company's stock.
Analyst Ratings Changes
A number of equities analysts have weighed in on C shares. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Citigroup from $58.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Societe Generale downgraded shares of Citigroup from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of Citigroup from $56.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Citigroup in a research note on Monday, April 1st. Finally, Oppenheimer decreased their target price on shares of Citigroup from $87.00 to $86.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $62.85.
Read Our Latest Analysis on C
Citigroup Price Performance
Shares of Citigroup stock traded up $0.20 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $61.55. The company's stock had a trading volume of 11,291,590 shares, compared to its average volume of 16,796,469. The stock has a market cap of $117.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.21, a P/E/G ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 1.49. Citigroup has a one year low of $38.17 and a one year high of $63.90. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $59.48 and a 200-day moving average price of $52.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.95.
Citigroup (NYSE:C - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 12th. The company reported $1.58 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $21.10 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $20.46 billion. Citigroup had a net margin of 4.90% and a return on equity of 6.17%. The firm's revenue was down 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.86 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Citigroup will post 5.97 EPS for the current year.
Citigroup Announces Dividend
The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 24th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 6th will be given a $0.53 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 3rd. This represents a $2.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.44%. Citigroup's payout ratio is presently 62.72%.
About Citigroup
(
Get Free Report)
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.
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