Bahl & Gaynor Inc. Purchases Shares of 3,584 Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C)

Bahl & Gaynor Inc. purchased a new stake in Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 3,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $227,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Orion Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Citigroup in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Citigroup in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Beaird Harris Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Citigroup by 1,962.1% in the 4th quarter. Beaird Harris Wealth Management LLC now owns 598 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 569 shares during the period. Rakuten Securities Inc. acquired a new position in Citigroup in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Finally, Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners acquired a new position in Citigroup in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $39,000. 71.72% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have issued reports on C shares. Argus upped their price target on shares of Citigroup from $70.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 15th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of Citigroup from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 20th. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Citigroup from $85.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 15th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of Citigroup from $56.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Citigroup in a research report on Monday, April 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Citigroup has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $67.25.

Citigroup Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of Citigroup stock traded down $0.59 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $64.07. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,226,455 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,886,282. Citigroup Inc. has a one year low of $38.17 and a one year high of $67.81. The company has a market capitalization of $122.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.97, a P/E/G ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 1.46. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $63.04 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $59.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 0.94.

Citigroup (NYSE:C) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 12th. The company reported $1.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.13. Citigroup had a net margin of 4.95% and a return on equity of 6.26%. The company had revenue of $20.14 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $20.07 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.37 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Citigroup Inc. will post 5.84 earnings per share for the current year.

Citigroup Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 23rd. Investors of record on Monday, August 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.56 per share. This represents a $2.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 5th. This is an increase from Citigroup’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. Citigroup’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 59.38%.

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.