5 Financial Stocks to Buy According to Jim Cramer

4. Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 79  

The journalist investor spoke about Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C), a diversified financial services firm, during the Discussed Stock round of Mad Money on December 1, giving it a Buy rating. 

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) recently announced that two retail banking units of the firm, based in Puerto Rico and Uruguay, would be sold to independent broker Insigneo. Scott Schroeder, a key executive at the firm, said the sale would “simplify” the wealth business of Citigroup. 

At the end of the third quarter of 2021, 79 hedge funds in the database of Insider Monkey held stakes worth $5.5 billion in Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C), compared to 87 the preceding quarter worth $6.1 billion.

Among the hedge funds being tracked by Insider Monkey, Chicago-based investment firm Harris Associates is a leading shareholder in Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) with 28 million shares worth more than $1.9 billion. 

In its Q1 2021 investor letter, Artisan Partners Limited Partnership, an asset management firm, highlighted a few stocks and Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C)  was one of them. Here is what the fund said:

“We fully exited position in Citigroup. Global financial services company Citigroup made a $900 million clerical error and received a public reprimand from federal regulators. This, after a decade focused on process control, information technology and risk systems, makes the error substantially more costly than just the $900 million mistake. Regulators believe the company’s risk management improvements have fallen short of expectations. To rectify the situation, a process and technology spending surge could negatively affect 2021-2022 profits by 10% to 20%. Trust and confidence are important in large financial institutions, and this incident combined with the CEO’s sudden retirement shook ours.”