Citizens (NYSE:CIA) Rating Increased to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Citizens (NYSE:CIA) was upgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report released on Saturday.

Citizens Stock Up 6.3%

NYSE:CIA opened at $4.56 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $3.68 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $4.24. The stock has a market cap of $228.73 million, a PE ratio of 20.73 and a beta of 0.39. Citizens has a 52 week low of $2.62 and a 52 week high of $5.95.

Citizens (NYSE:CIA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The insurance provider reported $0.13 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.04 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $62.68 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $62.78 million. Citizens had a return on equity of 6.54% and a net margin of 4.57%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Citizens will post 0.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Citizens news, CEO Jon Stenberg purchased 30,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 29th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $3.69 per share, with a total value of $110,700.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer directly owned 179,016 shares in the company, valued at $660,569.04. The trade was a 20.13% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders bought 37,350 shares of company stock worth $138,105 over the last quarter. 1.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Citizens

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Intech Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Citizens in the second quarter worth about $77,000. Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey bought a new stake in shares of Citizens in the second quarter worth about $32,000. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Citizens by 118.0% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,032,234 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,603,000 after purchasing an additional 558,840 shares during the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Citizens by 7.4% in the second quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 598,750 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,090,000 after purchasing an additional 41,356 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Citizens by 142.8% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 199,809 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $909,000 after purchasing an additional 117,502 shares during the last quarter. 13.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Citizens Company Profile

Citizens, Inc provides life insurance products in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Life Insurance and Home Service Insurance. The Life Insurance segment issues ordinary whole life insurance and endowment policies in the United States dollar-denominated amounts to non-U.S.