Traders Buy Large Volume of Citigroup Call Options (NYSE:C)

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) was the target of unusually large options trading on Friday. Stock traders acquired 114,874 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 24% compared to the typical volume of 92,416 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

C has been the subject of several research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on Citigroup from $75.00 to $71.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Citigroup from $63.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Citigroup from $79.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on Citigroup from $60.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on Citigroup from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 20th. One investment 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. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $70.33.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Citigroup

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Creative Planning grew its position in Citigroup by 0.6% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 381,362 shares of the company’s stock worth $23,873,000 after buying an additional 2,372 shares in the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Citigroup during the third quarter worth about $206,000. Grove Bank & Trust grew its position in Citigroup by 7.1% during the third quarter. Grove Bank & Trust now owns 2,564 shares of the company’s stock worth $161,000 after buying an additional 170 shares in the last quarter. Stablepoint Partners LLC grew its position in Citigroup by 10.0% during the third quarter. Stablepoint Partners LLC now owns 6,877 shares of the company’s stock worth $430,000 after buying an additional 628 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Citigroup during the third quarter worth about $80,000. 71.72% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Citigroup Price Performance

NYSE C opened at $65.74 on Friday. Citigroup has a fifty-two week low of $38.17 and a fifty-two week high of $67.81. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $60.66 and its two-hundred day moving average is $61.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.94. The firm has a market cap of $125.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 1.44.

Citigroup (NYSE:C) last posted its earnings results on Friday, July 12th. The company reported $1.52 earnings per share 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 last year, the company earned $1.37 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Citigroup will post 5.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Citigroup Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 23rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 5th were given a $0.56 dividend. This is an increase from Citigroup’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. This represents a $2.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.41%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 5th. Citigroup’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 62.75%.

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.