Citizens (NYSE:CIA) Stock Rating Upgraded by Wall Street Zen

Citizens (NYSE:CIA – Get Free Report) was upgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “strong sell” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Sunday, Wall Street Zen reports.

A number of other research analysts have also recently weighed in on CIA. Zacks Research cut Citizens from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Weiss Ratings downgraded Citizens from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Friday, October 2nd. Citigroup initiated coverage on Citizens in a research report on Monday, August 24th. They set a “buy” rating for the company. Finally, Freedom Broker assumed coverage on Citizens in a research report on Monday, August 24th. They set a “buy” rating and a $5.50 price objective for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $5.50.

Get Our Latest Report on CIA

Citizens Stock Down 1.8%

NYSE CIA opened at $3.46 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $3.79 and a 200 day moving average price of $4.81. The stock has a market capitalization of $193.94 million, a P/E ratio of 16.50 and a beta of 0.47. Citizens has a 52-week low of $3.38 and a 52-week high of $6.54.

Citizens (NYSE:CIA – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 6th. The insurance provider reported $0.01 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.07 by ($0.06). Citizens had a return on equity of 4.73% and a net margin of 4.55%. The business had revenue of $61.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $63.85 million. On average, equities research analysts expect that Citizens will post 0.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Citizens news, Director Michael Philip Harwood purchased 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 31st. The shares were acquired at an average price of $3.80 per share, for a total transaction of $38,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 11,096 shares in the company, valued at $42,164.80. The trade was a 912.41% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jon Stenberg acquired 12,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 11th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $3.65 per share, with a total value of $43,800.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer owned 389,574 shares in the company, valued at $1,421,945.10. This represents a 3.18% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Insiders acquired a total of 27,376 shares of company stock worth $102,390 in the last quarter. 2.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Citizens

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CIA. Empowered Funds LLC grew its holdings in shares of Citizens by 8.3% in the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 238,487 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,200,000 after acquiring an additional 18,244 shares during the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC increased its stake in Citizens by 25.0% in the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 66,456 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $381,000 after purchasing an additional 13,300 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE raised its holdings in Citizens by 15.7% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 42,405 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $213,000 after buying an additional 5,746 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 13.73% of the company’s stock.

About Citizens

(Get Free Report)

Citizens, Inc NYSE: CIA is an insurance holding company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Through its subsidiaries, the company primarily provides life insurance and related products to individuals and families in the United States and selected international markets.

Its product offerings include final-expense and burial insurance, ordinary whole-life and term-life policies, endowment products, and certain accident and health insurance coverage. These products are designed to provide financial protection, death benefits, and other forms of insurance support for policyholders and their beneficiaries.

Citizens has historically served customers in the United States as well as markets in Latin America and Asia.

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