Sterling Investment Counsel LLC Purchases New Stake in Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C)

Sterling Investment Counsel LLC acquired a new position in shares of Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 3,133 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $221,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in C. Nilsine Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Citigroup by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Nilsine Partners LLC now owns 12,634 shares of the company’s stock worth $889,000 after purchasing an additional 429 shares during the period. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in Citigroup by 22.3% during the 4th quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC now owns 319,669 shares of the company’s stock worth $22,502,000 after buying an additional 58,204 shares during the last quarter. Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI increased its position in Citigroup by 191.9% in the fourth quarter. Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI now owns 22,962 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,616,000 after buying an additional 15,095 shares during the period. Parkside Investments LLC lifted its stake in Citigroup by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Parkside Investments LLC now owns 127,189 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,953,000 after buying an additional 2,130 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Webster Bank N. A. boosted its holdings in shares of Citigroup by 150.0% during the fourth quarter. Webster Bank N. A. now owns 500 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.72% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on C. Oppenheimer dropped their price objective on shares of Citigroup from $110.00 to $102.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Citigroup from $104.00 to $109.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on Citigroup from $85.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Bank of America increased their price objective on Citigroup from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Truist Financial initiated coverage on Citigroup in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. They set a “buy” rating and a $85.00 target price on the stock. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $83.93.

Citigroup Price Performance

Shares of Citigroup stock opened at $81.07 on Tuesday. Citigroup Inc. has a 52 week low of $52.24 and a 52 week high of $82.77. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50. The stock has a market cap of $153.33 billion, a PE ratio of 13.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 1.43. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $72.71 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $66.21.

Citigroup (NYSE:C) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The company reported $1.34 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.22 by $0.12. Citigroup had a net margin of 7.43% and a return on equity of 6.62%. The business had revenue of $19.58 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $19.51 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.84 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Citigroup Inc. will post 7.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Citigroup Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be given 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 2.76%. Citigroup’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.65%.

Citigroup declared that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Wednesday, January 15th that authorizes the company to repurchase $20.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to buy up to 13.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.