Citigroup (NYSE:C) Board of Directors Authorizes Stock Buyback Program

Citigroup (NYSE:C) declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, January 15th, RTT News reports. The company plans to buyback $20.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to repurchase up to 13.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

C has been the subject of several recent research reports. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Citigroup from $73.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Barclays upgraded shares of Citigroup from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Citigroup from $86.00 to $82.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Citigroup from $85.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of Citigroup from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $80.13.

Citigroup Trading Up 6.8 %

Shares of C stock opened at $78.48 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $148.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a quick ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.55. Citigroup has a fifty-two week low of $50.51 and a fifty-two week high of $79.25. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $70.60 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $65.22.

Citigroup (NYSE:C) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The company reported $1.34 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.22 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $19.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $19.51 billion. Citigroup had a net margin of 4.70% and a return on equity of 6.19%. Citigroup’s revenue was up 12.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.84 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Citigroup will post 5.86 EPS for the current year.

Citigroup Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.56 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $2.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.85%. Citigroup’s payout ratio is currently 64.93%.

About Citigroup

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.