Jim Cramer’s Top 5 Stock Picks for 2022

3. Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 79  

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) is a diversified financial services firm. Cramer noted last week that the stock was trading “cheap” at only 80% of its “tangible book value” and looked set to take off again in the coming months as the bank resumed share buybacks. 

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) stock has offered institutional investors some much-needed stability amid a volatile market in the past few months. 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.”