Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. Acquires New Position in Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C)

Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 18,420 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $948,000.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Panagora Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Citigroup by 24.5% in the 1st quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 29,752 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,589,000 after purchasing an additional 5,853 shares during the last quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. boosted its holdings in Citigroup by 50.5% in the 1st quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 6,256 shares of the company’s stock valued at $334,000 after purchasing an additional 2,100 shares during the last quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. boosted its holdings in Citigroup by 20.8% in the 1st quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 5,274 shares of the company’s stock valued at $282,000 after purchasing an additional 907 shares during the last quarter. Ergoteles LLC acquired a new position in Citigroup in the 1st quarter valued at about $761,000. Finally, Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Citigroup by 7.0% in the 1st quarter. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC now owns 4,077 shares of the company’s stock worth $218,000 after acquiring an additional 268 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.72% of the company’s stock.

Citigroup Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of NYSE:C traded up $0.83 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $59.15. The stock had a trading volume of 13,367,494 shares, compared to its average volume of 17,210,979. Citigroup Inc. has a 1 year low of $38.17 and a 1 year high of $63.90. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $58.30 and its 200-day moving average is $51.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 0.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $113.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.50, a P/E/G ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 1.52.

Citigroup (NYSE:C) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 12th. The company reported $1.58 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.29 by $0.29. Citigroup had a net margin of 4.90% and a return on equity of 6.17%. The company had revenue of $21.10 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $20.46 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.86 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Citigroup Inc. will post 5.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Citigroup Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 6th will be given a $0.53 dividend. This represents a $2.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.58%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 3rd. Citigroup’s dividend payout ratio is presently 62.72%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on C shares. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Citigroup from $58.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Citigroup in a report on Monday, April 1st. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Citigroup from an “underweight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $46.00 to $65.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. HSBC upped their price objective on shares of Citigroup from $61.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 28th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Citigroup from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $58.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $62.91.

Citigroup 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.