Citizens (NYSE:CIA) Cut to “Sell” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Citizens (NYSE:CIA) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report report published on Tuesday morning.

Separately, Singular Research raised Citizens to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th.

Citizens Trading Up 2.6 %

Shares of CIA opened at $5.28 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $263.66 million, a P/E ratio of 12.29 and a beta of 0.11. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $4.87 and its 200 day simple moving average is $4.42. Citizens has a twelve month low of $1.78 and a twelve month high of $5.95.

Citizens (NYSE:CIA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 13th. The insurance provider reported $0.07 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.10 by ($0.03). Citizens had a net margin of 8.87% and a return on equity of 11.50%. The company had revenue of $63.47 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $64.66 million. Sell-side analysts predict that Citizens will post 0.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Citizens by 9.4% during the fourth quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. now owns 36,976 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $148,000 after acquiring an additional 3,176 shares in the last quarter. Alpine Global Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Citizens during the fourth quarter valued at about $41,000. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Citizens during the fourth quarter valued at about $63,000. Millennium Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Citizens by 49.2% during the fourth quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 202,347 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $811,000 after acquiring an additional 66,718 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bridgeway Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Citizens by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 427,347 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,714,000 after acquiring an additional 3,235 shares in the last quarter. 13.73% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Citizens Company Profile

Citizens, Inc provides life insurance products in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Life Insurance and Home Service Insurance. The Life Insurance segment issues ordinary whole life insurance and endowment policies in the United States dollar-denominated amounts to non-U.S.