Citigroup Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:C)

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) was the target of unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Investors purchased 157,271 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 43% compared to the typical daily volume of 109,869 call options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Citigroup

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of Citigroup by 123.5% during 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 buying an additional 17,525,484 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in Citigroup during the first quarter valued at $253,286,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Citigroup by 527.5% during the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,498,277 shares of the company’s stock valued at $158,521,000 after purchasing an additional 2,100,135 shares during the last quarter. Caxton Associates LP boosted its position in Citigroup by 7,393.3% during the first quarter. Caxton Associates LP now owns 2,015,390 shares of the company’s stock valued at $127,453,000 after purchasing an additional 1,988,494 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors boosted its position in Citigroup by 26.1% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 5,280,342 shares of the company’s stock valued at $333,929,000 after purchasing an additional 1,092,980 shares during the last quarter. 71.72% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on C. Oppenheimer raised their price target on Citigroup from $91.00 to $107.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on Citigroup from $86.00 to $82.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on Citigroup from $75.00 to $71.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. Bank of America lifted their target price on Citigroup from $77.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on Citigroup from $63.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Citigroup has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $72.06.

Citigroup Price Performance

Shares of NYSE C traded down $0.74 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $68.15. The company had a trading volume of 14,977,501 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,455,522. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.55. The stock has a market cap of $128.89 billion, a PE ratio of 19.70, a P/E/G ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $62.87 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $62.51. Citigroup has a 1-year low of $44.32 and a 1-year high of $70.20.

Citigroup (NYSE:C) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The company reported $1.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.31 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $20.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $19.86 billion. Citigroup had a return on equity of 6.19% and a net margin of 4.70%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.52 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Citigroup will post 5.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Citigroup Dividend Announcement

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. This represents a $2.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.29%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 4th. Citigroup’s payout ratio is 64.93%.

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.