Insider Selling: Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) CFO Sells $4,864,872.65 in Stock

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) CFO Mark Mason sold 58,465 shares of Citigroup stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.21, for a total transaction of $4,864,872.65. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 217,331 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,084,112.51. This trade represents a 21.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link.

Citigroup Trading Down 3.1 %

Shares of C stock opened at $81.32 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $76.63 and its 200-day moving average price is $68.32. 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 $153.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.67, a PEG ratio of 0.67 and a beta of 1.44. Citigroup Inc. has a twelve month low of $53.51 and a twelve month high of $84.74.

Citigroup (NYSE:C) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The company reported $1.34 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.22 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $19.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $19.51 billion. Citigroup had a net margin of 7.43% and a return on equity of 6.62%. The company’s revenue was up 12.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.84 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Citigroup Inc. will post 7.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Citigroup Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.75%. Citigroup’s payout ratio is 37.65%.

Citigroup declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, January 15th that permits the company to buyback $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to buy up to 13.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on C shares. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of Citigroup from $69.00 to $79.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Morgan Stanley lifted 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. Barclays raised shares of Citigroup from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of Citigroup from $77.00 to $86.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of Citigroup from $85.00 to $92.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $83.93.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Citigroup by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 40,587,155 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,853,484,000 after buying an additional 667,357 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in Citigroup by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 38,561,690 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,714,359,000 after buying an additional 815,003 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Citigroup by 29.7% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 34,362,176 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,418,754,000 after buying an additional 7,863,718 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in Citigroup by 9.3% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 32,832,063 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,311,048,000 after buying an additional 2,804,850 shares during the period. Finally, Capital World Investors raised its holdings in Citigroup by 455.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 31,352,582 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,206,908,000 after buying an additional 25,705,141 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.