I own a very small position in C myself. It helps round out my portfolio and it's a value play bet that financials will turn (eventually). However, my position is smalllllll becuase I also bet that it would continue to drop (it has). I DCA to average down. I disagree with the other post that C has not moved in years. It most certainly has - down. That's why I picked up a few. Dividend plus value was my reason. I'm not confident that the dividend yield will stay constant at over $2 a share though. If it does, all the better. It is one of 3 dividend stocks I have for income in my portfolio. I use my dividends plus interest in my linked high-interest account to buy shares of other stocks such as FTO (in at $40ish), NFLX (in at $19ish), and NVT (in at $70ish) for growth.
I do have two trading accounts, though. One for active trading and this one for long-term. I really have to focus and go against my experience of wanting to buy and sell quickly. But I picked my stocks, including C, and I'll try to stick to my plan.
IMO C will climb back to $45-$50 in the next 36 or so months. That's rough math of 10% or so annual growth at todays closing price without calculating divs. I'm ok with that, too. C may go bankrupt and be in the history books like Enron, but my money is on the fact that this will prove to be a value play at this level. Looking at it right now, $45 + is selling territory for me. It'll be months before that happens, though.
I do agree that there are better stocks to purchased if you have limited cash and shorter time frame expectations. For me, it was to add a value/income play in my otherwise heavily weighted growth portfolio. I have a set amount of money that I will add to my portfolio over the next 12 monts and I wanted some income to help add shares steadily over time.
Some of my other stocks are MKL, WFMI, ERF (ETF). I had BQI at <$5 and stopped out at $5.56. +10% or so in a couple of weeks.