Generali Investments Management Co LLC Purchases New Holdings in Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C)

Generali Investments Management Co LLC acquired a new stake in Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 45,655 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,214,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in C. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in Citigroup by 18.5% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 30,027,213 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,998,976,000 after purchasing an additional 4,680,713 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB boosted its holdings in Citigroup by 90.2% in the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 8,326,745 shares of the company’s stock valued at $586,120,000 after purchasing an additional 3,947,912 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Citigroup in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $198,231,000. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec boosted its holdings in Citigroup by 70.0% in the 3rd quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 4,531,827 shares of the company’s stock valued at $283,692,000 after purchasing an additional 1,865,628 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in Citigroup by 32.2% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 7,115,440 shares of the company’s stock valued at $501,994,000 after purchasing an additional 1,731,527 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.72% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on C shares. Oppenheimer lowered their price objective on Citigroup from $110.00 to $102.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Truist Financial started coverage on Citigroup in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. They set a “buy” rating and a $85.00 price target on the stock. Bank of America boosted their price target on Citigroup from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. StockNews.com raised Citigroup from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, Barclays raised Citigroup from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $83.93.

Citigroup Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of C opened at $70.24 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $77.51 and a two-hundred day moving average of $70.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 0.96. The company has a market capitalization of $132.37 billion, a PE ratio of 11.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 1.43. Citigroup Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $53.51 and a fifty-two week high of $84.74.

Citigroup (NYSE:C) last issued 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. The company had revenue of $19.58 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $19.51 billion. Citigroup had a return on equity of 6.62% and a net margin of 7.43%. Citigroup’s revenue was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.84 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Citigroup Inc. will post 7.53 EPS for the current year.

Citigroup Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a $0.56 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $2.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.19%. Citigroup’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.65%.

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 shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to purchase up to 13.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Citigroup

In other news, COO Anand Selvakesari sold 30,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.10, for a total transaction of $2,433,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 229,180 shares in the company, valued at $18,586,498. This represents a 11.57 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Mark Mason sold 58,465 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.21, for a total value of $4,864,872.65. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 217,331 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,084,112.51. The trade was a 21.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 103,590 shares of company stock worth $8,523,149. Insiders own 0.08% of the company’s stock.

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.