Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.56

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, January 14th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be paid a dividend of 0.56 per share on Friday, February 28th. This represents a $2.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 3rd.

Citigroup has increased its dividend payment by an average of 2.2% annually over the last three years. Citigroup has a payout ratio of 24.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Citigroup to earn $7.19 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.24 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 31.2%.

Citigroup Stock Up 6.8 %

Shares of Citigroup stock opened at $78.48 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $70.60 and a 200 day moving average price of $65.22. Citigroup has a fifty-two week low of $50.51 and a fifty-two week high of $79.25. The firm has a market cap of $148.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.75, a P/E/G 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 (NYSE:C) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The company reported $1.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.22 by $0.12. Citigroup had a net margin of 4.70% and a return on equity of 6.19%. The company had revenue of $19.58 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $19.51 billion. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.84 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Citigroup will post 5.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Citigroup declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, January 15th that permits the company to buyback $20.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to buy up to 13.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on C shares. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Citigroup from $72.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on shares of Citigroup from $82.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of Citigroup from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Citigroup from $85.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Barclays upgraded shares of Citigroup from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Citigroup currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $80.13.

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.