VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC Decreases Holdings in Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C)

VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC decreased its holdings in Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) by 2.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 5,099 shares of the company’s stock after selling 131 shares during the period. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Citigroup were worth $357,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Core Alternative Capital lifted its position in Citigroup by 83.4% in 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 during the last quarter. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC bought a new position in shares of Citigroup in the third quarter worth approximately $31,000. Webster Bank N. A. increased its stake in shares of Citigroup by 150.0% in the fourth quarter. Webster Bank N. A. now owns 500 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the period. Creative Capital Management Investments LLC bought a new stake in Citigroup during the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. Finally, GHP Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Citigroup by 184.0% during the 3rd quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 568 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 368 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 71.72% of the company’s stock.

Citigroup Stock Down 2.1 %

Shares of Citigroup stock opened at $79.65 on Friday. 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 Inc. has a twelve month low of $53.51 and a twelve month high of $84.74. The company has a market cap of $150.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 1.44. The company’s 50 day moving average is $76.80 and its 200 day moving average is $68.48.

Citigroup (NYSE:C) last released its quarterly earnings results 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. Citigroup had a return on equity of 6.62% and a net margin of 7.43%. The firm had revenue of $19.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $19.51 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.84 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 12.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Citigroup Inc. will post 7.53 EPS for the current year.

Citigroup announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, January 15th that permits the company to buyback $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to reacquire up to 13.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Citigroup Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.56 per share. 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 2.81%. Citigroup’s dividend payout ratio is currently 37.65%.

Insider Activity

In other Citigroup news, COO Anand Selvakesari sold 30,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Sara Wechter sold 15,125 shares of Citigroup stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.01, for a total value of $1,225,276.25. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 109,780 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,893,277.80. The trade was a 12.11 % 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 insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on C shares. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Citigroup from $104.00 to $109.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Citigroup from $85.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on Citigroup from $85.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Citigroup from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their target price on Citigroup from $69.00 to $79.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Citigroup has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $83.93.

Citigroup 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.