Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Boosts Holdings in Citizens, Inc. (NYSE:CIA)

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Citizens, Inc. (NYSE:CIA) by 9.4% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 36,976 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,176 shares during the period. Jefferies Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Citizens were worth $148,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Citizens by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 269,581 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,081,000 after buying an additional 2,590 shares in the last quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management boosted its stake in shares of Citizens by 6.7% in the fourth quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 46,116 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $185,000 after acquiring an additional 2,901 shares during the last quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Citizens by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 427,347 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,714,000 after purchasing an additional 3,235 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in Citizens by 5.7% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 106,327 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $426,000 after purchasing an additional 5,696 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC raised its stake in Citizens by 5.1% in the 4th quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 145,316 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $583,000 after purchasing an additional 7,035 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 13.73% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com raised shares of Citizens from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th.

Citizens Trading Down 1.7%

CIA opened at $4.04 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $201.62 million, a PE ratio of 9.40 and a beta of 0.44. Citizens, Inc. has a twelve month low of $2.33 and a twelve month high of $5.95. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $4.37 and its 200 day moving average price is $4.52.

Citizens (NYSE:CIA) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, March 13th. The insurance provider reported $0.07 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.10 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $63.47 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.66 million. Citizens had a return on equity of 11.50% and a net margin of 8.87%. As a group, analysts predict that Citizens, Inc. will post 0.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Jon Stenberg bought 106,340 shares of Citizens stock in a transaction on Monday, April 7th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $3.89 per share, with a total value of $413,662.60. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 124,363 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $483,772.07. This trade represents a 590.02% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 1.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.