Boston Partners Cuts Position in Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C)

Boston Partners lessened its position in shares of Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) by 2.7% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,753,404 shares of the company’s stock after selling 48,384 shares during the quarter. Boston Partners owned about 0.09% of Citigroup worth $110,877,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in shares of Citigroup by 123.5% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 31,716,442 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,005,749,000 after purchasing an additional 17,525,484 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Citigroup by 18.4% in the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 29,756,568 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,881,805,000 after purchasing an additional 4,620,867 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Citigroup by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 24,755,277 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,273,411,000 after purchasing an additional 1,836,283 shares during the period. Putnam Investments LLC boosted its holdings in Citigroup by 7.9% during the 4th quarter. Putnam Investments LLC now owns 17,775,952 shares of the company’s stock valued at $914,395,000 after acquiring an additional 1,300,520 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in Citigroup during the 4th quarter valued at $867,599,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.72% of the company’s stock.

Citigroup Stock Down 7.1 %

C stock traded down $4.52 on Friday, hitting $58.76. 30,289,346 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 13,975,021. Citigroup Inc. has a 12-month low of $38.17 and a 12-month high of $67.81. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $63.03 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $60.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 0.94. The stock has a market cap of $112.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 1.46.

Citigroup (NYSE:C) last announced its earnings results on Friday, July 12th. The company reported $1.52 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.39 by $0.13. Citigroup had a return on equity of 6.26% and a net margin of 4.95%. The firm had revenue of $20.14 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $20.07 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.37 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Citigroup Inc. will post 5.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Citigroup Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 23rd. Investors of record on Monday, August 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.56 per share. This represents a $2.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.81%. This is an increase from Citigroup’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 5th. Citigroup’s payout ratio is 59.38%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on C. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Citigroup from $85.00 to $86.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, July 15th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Citigroup from $63.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, June 17th. Argus boosted their price objective on Citigroup from $70.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 15th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Citigroup from $60.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on Citigroup from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $68.06.

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.