Citigroup (NYSE:C) Trading Up 1.8% – Still a Buy?

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) shares traded up 1.8% on Friday . The company traded as high as $63.78 and last traded at $63.23. 14,653,830 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 2% from the average session volume of 14,410,968 shares. The stock had previously closed at $62.10.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on C shares. StockNews.com cut shares of Citigroup from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, March 30th. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on Citigroup from $79.00 to $76.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. Barclays upgraded Citigroup from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Citigroup from $85.00 to $78.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Bank of America decreased their price target on shares of Citigroup from $90.00 to $89.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $84.61.

Citigroup Stock Up 1.8 %

The firm has a market cap of $119.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.63, a PEG ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 1.29. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $71.12 and a 200 day moving average of $70.98. The company has a quick ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50.

Citigroup (NYSE:C) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 15th. The company reported $1.96 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.84 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $21.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $21.34 billion. Citigroup had a net margin of 7.43% and a return on equity of 6.62%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Citigroup Inc. will post 7.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Citigroup Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 23rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 5th will be given a dividend of $0.56 per share. This represents a $2.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.54%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 5th. Citigroup’s payout ratio is 35.39%.

Citigroup announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, January 15th that allows the company to buyback $20.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 13.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Citigroup

In related news, insider Sara Wechter sold 15,125 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.01, for a total transaction of $1,225,276.25. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 109,780 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,893,277.80. This represents a 12.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Mark Mason sold 58,465 shares of Citigroup stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.21, for a total transaction of $4,864,872.65. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 217,331 shares in the company, valued at $18,084,112.51. This represents a 21.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 103,590 shares of company stock valued at $8,523,149. Corporate insiders own 0.08% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank bought a new position in Citigroup during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,935,599,000. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in shares of Citigroup by 455.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 31,352,582 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,206,908,000 after purchasing an additional 25,705,141 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Citigroup by 29.7% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 34,362,176 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,418,754,000 after purchasing an additional 7,863,718 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in shares of Citigroup by 18.5% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 30,027,213 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,998,976,000 after buying an additional 4,680,713 shares during the period. Finally, Swedbank AB increased its stake in shares of Citigroup by 90.2% in 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.72% of the company’s stock.

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.