Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) Shares Bought by Merit Financial Group LLC

Merit Financial Group LLC boosted its position in Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) by 35.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,283 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,441 shares during the quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Citigroup were worth $683,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Citigroup during the fourth quarter worth about $2,109,120,000. Greenhaven Associates Inc. grew its stake in Citigroup by 22.4% during the 4th quarter. Greenhaven Associates Inc. now owns 16,113,305 shares of the company’s stock worth $828,868,000 after buying an additional 2,948,512 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Citigroup by 42.4% during the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 6,484,540 shares of the company’s stock worth $266,709,000 after buying an additional 1,930,296 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Citigroup by 8.0% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 24,751,813 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,273,233,000 after buying an additional 1,832,819 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its holdings in shares of Citigroup by 251.1% in the third quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 2,356,177 shares of the company’s stock valued at $96,910,000 after acquiring an additional 1,685,100 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.72% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $80.00 price objective on shares of Citigroup in a research report on Monday, April 1st. StockNews.com raised shares of Citigroup from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Citigroup from $58.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on shares of Citigroup from $54.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut shares of Citigroup from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $57.00 price target for the company. in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Citigroup currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $62.85.

Citigroup Trading Up 2.1 %

Shares of C stock opened at $62.81 on Tuesday. Citigroup Inc. has a 1-year low of $38.17 and a 1-year high of $63.90. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $59.70 and its 200-day simple moving average is $52.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The firm has a market cap of $120.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.58, a PEG ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 1.49.

Citigroup (NYSE:C) last posted 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. Citigroup had a net margin of 4.90% and a return on equity of 6.17%. The firm had revenue of $21.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $20.46 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.86 earnings per share. Citigroup’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Citigroup Inc. will post 5.98 EPS for the current year.

Citigroup Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 24th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 6th will be issued a dividend of $0.53 per share. This represents a $2.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.38%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 3rd. Citigroup’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 62.72%.

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.