Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 36,140,000 shares, an increase of 9.8% from the November 30th total of 32,900,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 13,540,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.7 days. Currently, 1.9% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Citigroup

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in C. Inspire Trust Co. N.A. lifted its stake in shares of Citigroup by 34.8% in the third quarter. Inspire Trust Co. N.A. now owns 77,506 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,852,000 after buying an additional 20,000 shares in the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Citigroup by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 354,294 shares of the company’s stock worth $22,236,000 after purchasing an additional 8,301 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV boosted its holdings in shares of Citigroup by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,138,511 shares of the company’s stock worth $71,270,000 after purchasing an additional 20,291 shares during the last quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. grew its position in shares of Citigroup by 4.9% in the third quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 394,738 shares of the company’s stock valued at $24,710,000 after purchasing an additional 18,278 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Summit Global Investments boosted its stake in Citigroup by 289.5% during the third quarter. Summit Global Investments now owns 30,640 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,918,000 after buying an additional 22,774 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.72% of the company’s stock.

Citigroup Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of C stock opened at $70.39 on Tuesday. Citigroup has a 1-year low of $50.51 and a 1-year high of $73.38. The company has a market cap of $133.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.40, a PEG ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.55, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.96. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $68.55 and a 200-day simple moving average of $64.30.

Citigroup (NYSE:C) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 15th. The company reported $1.51 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.31 by $0.20. Citigroup had a net margin of 4.70% and a return on equity of 6.19%. The company had revenue of $20.32 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $19.86 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.52 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Citigroup will post 5.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Citigroup Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 5th were issued a $0.56 dividend. This represents a $2.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.18%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 4th. Citigroup’s payout ratio is 64.93%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Citigroup from $85.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Citigroup from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $70.00 to $82.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Citigroup from $73.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Citigroup from $63.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Citigroup from $78.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $76.47.

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.