Renaissance Technologies LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Citizens, Inc. (NYSE:CIA)

Renaissance Technologies LLC reduced its stake in Citizens, Inc. (NYSE:CIA) by 4.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 215,294 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 9,300 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC’s holdings in Citizens were worth $863,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Barclays PLC raised its position in Citizens by 24.4% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 52,379 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $189,000 after purchasing an additional 10,267 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Citizens by 2.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 458,886 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,662,000 after acquiring an additional 10,235 shares during the last quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management raised its holdings 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 valued at $185,000 after buying an additional 2,901 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC grew its stake in shares of 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. Finally, Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new position in Citizens during the 4th quarter worth $92,000. 13.73% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Citizens Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of CIA opened at $4.07 on Friday. Citizens, Inc. has a 12-month low of $2.05 and a 12-month high of $5.95. The stock has a market cap of $203.12 million, a P/E ratio of 9.47 and a beta of 0.26. The company has a 50-day moving average of $4.50 and a two-hundred day moving average of $4.59.

Citizens (NYSE:CIA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 13th. The insurance provider reported $0.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.10 by ($0.03). The firm 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 forecast that Citizens, Inc. will post 0.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Citizens news, CEO Jon Stenberg purchased 106,340 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 7th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $3.89 per share, for a total transaction of $413,662.60. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer now owns 124,363 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $483,772.07. This represents a 590.02 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.20% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com upgraded Citizens from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th.

About Citizens

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.