Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) Given Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the sixteen analysts that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $62.85.

C has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on Citigroup from $56.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Citigroup in a research note on Monday, April 1st. BMO Capital Markets lowered shares of Citigroup from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $57.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Citigroup from an “underweight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $46.00 to $65.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Citigroup from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 19th.

Citigroup Stock Performance

C opened at $61.50 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $117.79 billion, a PE ratio of 18.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 1.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $59.59 and a 200 day simple moving average of $52.48. Citigroup has a 1 year low of $38.17 and a 1 year high of $63.90.

Citigroup (NYSE:C) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 12th. The company reported $1.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.29. Citigroup had a return on equity of 6.17% and a net margin of 4.90%. The firm had revenue of $21.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $20.46 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.86 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Citigroup will post 5.98 EPS for the current year.

Citigroup Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 24th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 6th will be issued a dividend of $0.53 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 3rd. This represents a $2.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.45%. Citigroup’s payout ratio is 62.72%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in shares of Citigroup by 18.4% during the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 29,756,568 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,881,805,000 after purchasing an additional 4,620,867 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Citigroup by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 24,755,277 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,273,411,000 after buying an additional 1,836,283 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in Citigroup by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 20,051,311 shares of the company’s stock valued at $824,710,000 after buying an additional 232,652 shares in the last quarter. Putnam Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Citigroup by 7.9% in the 4th quarter. Putnam Investments LLC now owns 17,775,952 shares of the company’s stock worth $914,395,000 after purchasing an additional 1,300,520 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Citigroup in the 4th quarter worth approximately $867,599,000. 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.