Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) Short Interest Update

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) saw a large increase in short interest in the month of August. As of August 15th, there was short interest totalling 37,750,000 shares, an increase of 29.6% from the July 31st total of 29,130,000 shares. Approximately 2.0% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 13,210,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.9 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Citigroup

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in shares of Citigroup by 123.5% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 31,716,442 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,005,749,000 after buying an additional 17,525,484 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in shares of Citigroup by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 30,007,284 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,904,262,000 after purchasing an additional 250,716 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of 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. Putnam Investments LLC boosted its holdings in Citigroup by 7.9% during the fourth quarter. Putnam Investments LLC now owns 17,775,952 shares of the company’s stock worth $914,395,000 after buying an additional 1,300,520 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in Citigroup by 5.5% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 17,428,251 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,105,999,000 after buying an additional 913,231 shares in the last quarter. 71.72% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Citigroup Stock Up 1.2 %

C stock traded up $0.76 during trading on Friday, reaching $62.64. 10,806,580 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 13,422,590. The company has a market capitalization of $119.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 1.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 0.94. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $62.53 and a 200 day simple moving average of $61.04. Citigroup has a 12 month low of $38.17 and a 12 month high of $67.81.

Citigroup (NYSE:C) last announced its earnings results on Friday, July 12th. The company reported $1.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.39 by $0.13. Citigroup had a return on equity of 6.26% and a net margin of 4.95%. The company had revenue of $20.14 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $20.07 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.37 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Citigroup will post 5.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Citigroup Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 23rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 5th were issued a $0.56 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 5th. This is a positive change from Citigroup’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. This represents a $2.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.58%. Citigroup’s dividend payout ratio is currently 62.75%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

C has been the topic of several research reports. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on Citigroup from $63.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Citigroup from $85.00 to $86.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, July 15th. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Citigroup from $70.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 15th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on Citigroup from $60.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Citigroup from $63.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Citigroup currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $68.06.

About Citigroup

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.