Billionaire Ken Griffin Just Bought A Boatload Of This Bank’s Shares

Now let’s take a look at Griffin’s top banking stock picks, beginning with Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C), in which Griffin decreased his stake by 42% to 6.17 million shares valued at $317.9 million. Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) was one of the most popular stocks among investment managers during the first quarter, with 126 funds tracked by Insider Monkey disclosing positions in Citigroup Inc, with an aggregate investment of $11.63 billion. For the first quarter of 2015, Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) posted net income of $4.8 billion, or $1.51 per share, versus $3.9 billion, or $1.23 per share in the same quarter last year. However, revenues of $19.7 billion were down from revenues of $20.2 billion in the same period last year. During the past year, shares of the $169.85 billion financial services company have risen by nearly 16%. Eagle Capital Management, led by Boykin Curry, held 26.35 million shares of the company at the end of March.

Griffin was bullish on Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) during the first quarter, boosting his stake in the company to 8.73 million shares, worth $311.5 million, from just 245,502 shares held at the end of 2014. Morgan Stanley is a global financial services firm with a market cap of $77.05 billion. The company’s stock has gained 24.25% during the past calendar year. Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) reported an increase in its first quarter 2015 income from continuing operations to $2.4 billion, compared to $1.5 billion for the same period a year ago. Its revenues for the quarter increased to $9.9 billion, versus $9.0 billion a year ago. In addition, Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) raised its quarterly dividend to $0.15 per share, for a yield of 1.50%, from the previous dividend rate of $0.10 per share. Another investor with a big position in the company is Richard S. Pzena’s Pzena Investment Management, which holds 11.05 million shares as of March 31.

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