Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fourteen research firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and eleven have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $84.50.

C has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on Citigroup from $90.00 to $80.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Barclays raised shares of Citigroup from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Oppenheimer lowered their price objective on shares of Citigroup from $110.00 to $102.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Citigroup from $110.00 to $109.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on Citigroup from $85.00 to $92.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th.

Citigroup Trading Down 2.2 %

NYSE C opened at $70.28 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $132.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.96. Citigroup has a 12 month low of $53.51 and a 12 month high of $84.74. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $77.06 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $70.72.

Citigroup (NYSE:C) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The company reported $1.34 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.22 by $0.12. Citigroup had a net margin of 7.43% and a return on equity of 6.62%. The business had revenue of $19.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $19.51 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.84 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Citigroup will post 7.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Citigroup announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Wednesday, January 15th that authorizes the company to repurchase $20.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to repurchase up to 13.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Citigroup Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were paid a $0.56 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $2.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.19%. Citigroup’s payout ratio is 37.65%.

Insider Activity at Citigroup

In other news, CFO Mark Mason sold 58,465 shares of Citigroup stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.21, for a total value of $4,864,872.65. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 217,331 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,084,112.51. The trade was a 21.20 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Sara Wechter sold 15,125 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.01, for a total transaction of $1,225,276.25. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 109,780 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,893,277.80. This represents a 12.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 103,590 shares of company stock worth $8,523,149 over the last quarter. 0.08% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Core Alternative Capital lifted its stake in Citigroup by 83.4% during the fourth quarter. Core Alternative Capital now owns 376 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 171 shares in the last quarter. Orion Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Citigroup in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC acquired a new position in Citigroup in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $31,000. Mascagni Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in Citigroup during the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. Finally, Webster Bank N. A. raised its stake in Citigroup by 150.0% during the 4th quarter. Webster Bank N. A. now owns 500 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 71.72% of the company’s stock.

Citigroup Company Profile

Citigroup Inc, a diversified financial service holding company, provides various financial product and services to consumers, corporations, governments, and institutions worldwide. It operates through five segments: Services, Markets, Banking, U.S. Personal Banking, and Wealth. The Services segment includes Treasury and Trade Solutions, which provides cash management, trade, and working capital solutions to multinational corporations, financial institutions, and public sector organizations; and Securities Services, such as cross-border support for clients, local market expertise, post-trade technologies, data solutions, and various securities services solutions.