Lake Street Advisors Group LLC Grows Stake in Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C)

Lake Street Advisors Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) by 4.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 15,059 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 598 shares during the quarter. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC’s holdings in Citigroup were worth $1,060,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Longbow Finance SA purchased a new stake in shares of Citigroup during the 4th quarter valued at about $9,061,000. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund boosted its holdings in shares of Citigroup by 20.9% in the fourth quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 184,527 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,989,000 after buying an additional 31,883 shares during the last quarter. FourThought Financial Partners LLC bought a new stake in Citigroup during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $437,000. Prasad Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Citigroup during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,095,000. Finally, BankPlus Trust Department bought a new position in Citigroup in the fourth quarter worth approximately $63,000. Institutional investors own 71.72% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. StockNews.com upgraded Citigroup from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Evercore ISI upped their price target on Citigroup from $69.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Citigroup from $104.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Citigroup from $85.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Citigroup from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Citigroup presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $83.93.

Citigroup Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:C opened at $79.00 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $149.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.28, a P/E/G ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 1.44. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $77.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $69.01. Citigroup Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $53.51 and a fifty-two week high of $84.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 0.96.

Citigroup (NYSE:C) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 15th. The company reported $1.34 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $19.51 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.84 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Citigroup Inc. will post 7.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Citigroup Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be paid a $0.56 dividend. This represents a $2.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 3rd. Citigroup’s payout ratio is 37.65%.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Anand Selvakesari sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.10, for a total value of $2,433,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 229,180 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,586,498. This trade represents a 11.57 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Mark Mason sold 58,465 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owns 217,331 shares in the company, valued at $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. Insiders have sold a total of 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.

Citigroup Company 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.