On March 27, 2023 at 11:52:24 ET an unusually large $890.00K block of Put contracts in Citigroup (C) was bought, with a strike price of $45.00 / share, expiring in 172 days (on September 15, 2023). Fintel tracks all large options trades, and the premium spent on this trade was 2.70 sigmas above the mean, placing it in the 99.56 percentile of all recent large trades made in C options.

This trade was first picked up on Fintel’s real time Unusual Option Trades tool, where unusual option trades are highlighted.

Analyst Price Forecast Suggests 37.88% Upside

As of March 26, 2023, the average one-year price target for Citigroup is $59.44. The forecasts range from a low of $41.41 to a high of $99.75. The average price target represents an increase of 37.88% from its latest reported closing price of $43.11.

See our leaderboard of companies with the largest price target upside.

The projected annual revenue for Citigroup is $78,049MM, an increase of 10.61%. The projected annual non-GAAP EPS is $6.58.

What is the Fund Sentiment?

There are 2584 funds or institutions reporting positions in Citigroup. This is an increase of 8 owner(s) or 0.31% in the last quarter. Average portfolio weight of all funds dedicated to C is 0.47%, a decrease of 9.49%. Total shares owned by institutions increased in the last three months by 0.05% to 1,552,324K shares. The put/call ratio of C is 1.14, indicating a bearish outlook.

What are Large Shareholders Doing?

VTSMX – Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Investor Shares holds 55,931K shares representing 2.87% ownership of the company. In it’s prior filing, the firm reported owning 54,852K shares, representing an increase of 1.93%. The firm increased its portfolio allocation in C by 2.21% over the last quarter.

Berkshire Hathaway holds 55,156K shares representing 2.83% ownership of the company. No change in the last quarter.

VFINX – Vanguard 500 Index Fund Investor Shares holds 44,774K shares representing 2.30% ownership of the company. In it’s prior filing, the firm reported owning 43,903K shares, representing an increase of 1.95%. The firm increased its portfolio allocation in C by 1.98% over the last quarter.

Geode Capital Management holds 34,660K shares representing 1.78% ownership of the company. In it’s prior filing, the firm reported owning 34,424K shares, representing an increase of 0.68%. The firm increased its portfolio allocation in C by 1.03% over the last quarter.

Bank of New York Mellon holds 26,685K shares representing 1.37% ownership of the company. In it’s prior filing, the firm reported owning 26,320K shares, representing an increase of 1.37%. The firm decreased its portfolio allocation in C by 81.38% over the last quarter.

Citigroup Declares $0.51 Dividend

On January 11, 2023 the company declared a regular quarterly dividend of $0.51 per share ($2.04 annualized). Shareholders of record as of February 6, 2023 received the payment on February 24, 2023. Previously, the company paid $0.51 per share.

At the current share price of $43.11 / share, the stock’s dividend yield is 4.73%. Looking back five years and taking a sample every week, the average dividend yield has been 3.29%, the lowest has been 1.76%, and the highest has been 5.76%. The standard deviation of yields is 0.80 (n=237).

The current dividend yield is 1.80 standard deviations above the historical average.

Additionally, the company’s dividend payout ratio is 0.27. The payout ratio tells us how much of a company’s income is paid out in dividends. A payout ratio of one (1.0) means 100% of the company’s income is paid in a dividend. A payout ratio greater than one means the company is dipping into savings in order to maintain its dividend – not a healthy situation. Companies with few growth prospects are expected to pay out most of their income in dividends, which typically means a payout ratio between 0.5 and 1.0. Companies with good growth prospects are expected to retain some earnings in order to invest in those growth prospects, which translates to a payout ratio of zero to 0.5.

The company has not increased its dividend in the last three years.

Citigroup Background Information
(This description is provided by the company.)

Citigroup Inc. or citi is an American multinational investment bank and financial services corporation headquartered in New York City. The company was formed by the merger of banking giant Citicorp and financial conglomerate Travelers Group in 1998. Citigroup is the third largest banking institution in the United States; alongside JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo, it is one of the Big Four banking institutions of the United States. Citigroup is ranked 30th on the Fortune 500 as of 2019. Citigroup has over 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries. It has 204,000 employees.

This article originally appeared on Fintel

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