Stock Repurchase Program Declared by Citigroup (NYSE:C) Board

Citigroup (NYSE:C) declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, January 15th, RTT News reports. The company plans to buyback $20.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to purchase up to 13.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have issued reports on C shares. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $83.00 target price (up previously from $80.00) on shares of Citigroup in a research report on Thursday. Bank of America increased their target price on Citigroup from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Citigroup from $104.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Citigroup from $69.00 to $79.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Oppenheimer lowered their price target on Citigroup from $110.00 to $102.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $83.93.

Citigroup Price Performance

NYSE C opened at $78.51 on Friday. Citigroup has a 12-month low of $50.51 and a 12-month high of $79.25. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $70.78 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $65.32. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $148.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.76, a P/E/G ratio of 0.59 and a beta of 1.43.

Citigroup (NYSE:C) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The company reported $1.34 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.22 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $19.58 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $19.51 billion. Citigroup had a return on equity of 6.19% and a net margin of 4.70%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.84 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Citigroup will post 5.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Citigroup Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be issued a $0.56 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $2.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.85%. Citigroup’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 64.93%.

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.