Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Call Options on Citigroup (NYSE:C)

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Traders bought 158,023 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 62% compared to the typical volume of 97,670 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

C has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Citigroup from $63.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. Evercore ISI upped their price target on Citigroup from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Citigroup from $70.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 15th. Oppenheimer lowered their target price on Citigroup from $92.00 to $91.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Citigroup from $77.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $71.06.

Citigroup Stock Down 0.3 %

Citigroup stock opened at $64.51 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47. Citigroup has a 1-year low of $38.92 and a 1-year high of $67.81. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $61.87 and its 200-day simple moving average is $62.05. The company has a market capitalization of $123.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.70, a P/E/G ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 1.44.

Citigroup (NYSE:C) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The company reported $1.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.31 by $0.20. Citigroup had a return on equity of 6.26% and a net margin of 4.95%. The company had revenue of $20.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $19.86 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.52 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Citigroup will post 5.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Citigroup Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 5th will be issued a $0.56 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 4th. This represents a $2.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.47%. Citigroup’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 64.93%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Citigroup

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position 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 valued at $2,005,749,000 after purchasing an additional 17,525,484 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in 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 valued at $1,904,262,000 after purchasing an additional 250,716 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc grew its holdings in Citigroup by 5.5% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 17,428,251 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,105,999,000 after buying an additional 913,231 shares during the last quarter. Greenhaven Associates Inc. increased its position in Citigroup by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Greenhaven Associates Inc. now owns 16,883,391 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,056,900,000 after buying an additional 242,545 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Citigroup by 1.8% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 9,300,447 shares of the company’s stock worth $590,106,000 after buying an additional 168,070 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.72% of the company’s stock.

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.