Citigroup Tops Forbes' Weekly Insider Buys

Citigroup (C), among the rest of the U.S. money center banks, remains one of our most favored banks. The recent insider buying activity by one of the bank's directors, William Thompson, prompted Forbes to place it in its weekly top insider buys. As the directors are considered to have greater insight into the company's future, this insider activity shows the director's confidence in the bank's future growth in the challenging macroeconomic environment. This, combined with cheap relative valuations, supports our bullish investment thesis on the bank. Therefore, we reiterate our buy rating for the stock. During the past 3 months, 16 buy transactions were conducted by insiders, involving over 8,600 shares of Citigroup.  

The bank has attractive valuations as compared to its peers in the U.S. money center banks. The Citigroup's stock, that has seen over 67% appreciation in price since the beginning of the year, trades at a 43% sizable discount to its book value, compared to 19% premium to the book value for Wells Fargo (WFC).
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