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

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty research firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, fourteen have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $137.6176.

C has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $145.00 target price on shares of Citigroup in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Citigroup from $140.00 to $144.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 15th. Truist Financial set a $147.00 price objective on Citigroup in a report on Friday, May 1st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on Citigroup from $140.00 to $153.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $145.00 price objective (up from $125.00) on shares of Citigroup in a report on Wednesday, April 15th.

Insider Transactions at Citigroup

In other Citigroup news, Director John Cunningham Dugan sold 2,117 shares of Citigroup stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $125.30, for a total transaction of $265,260.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 12,194 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,527,908.20. The trade was a 14.79% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Edward Skyler sold 25,000 shares of Citigroup stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $131.41, for a total value of $3,285,250.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 182,022 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,919,511.02. The trade was a 12.08% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.11% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in C. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Citigroup during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,800,944,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Citigroup by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 163,239,926 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,048,467,000 after purchasing an additional 4,938,923 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in shares of Citigroup by 17.6% during the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 28,125,995 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,854,788,000 after purchasing an additional 4,211,099 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its holdings in shares of Citigroup by 6.5% during the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 47,262,626 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,797,292,000 after purchasing an additional 2,871,074 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Citigroup by 6,172.0% during the third quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 2,904,795 shares of the company’s stock worth $294,838,000 after purchasing an additional 2,858,481 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.72% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Citigroup

Here are the key news stories impacting Citigroup this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Citigroup announced a private credit partnership with BlackRock’s HPS Investment Partners, a large €15 billion deal aimed at expanding direct lending across Europe, the U.K., and later the Middle East. The move could help Citi deepen its presence in private credit and generate new fee income. Citigroup (C) Forms Private Credit Partnership With BlackRock
• Positive Sentiment: Citi’s wealth business is also expanding, with management saying a significant share of new global hiring will be focused on Asia, where the private bank is growing faster and producing better productivity. That supports the bank’s restructuring story and long-term profitability goals. Citi to boost Asia wealth business with ‘significant’ hires, global head says
• Positive Sentiment: Citigroup shareholder approval of an expanded stock incentive plan suggests investors are backing management’s compensation and retention strategy, which can help support execution on the company’s turnaround plan. Citigroup Shareholders Approve Expanded Stock Incentive Plan
• Positive Sentiment: Citigroup also continues to benefit from a broader favorable view from analysts, including comments that Q1 results confirmed improving earnings momentum. Citigroup Upgraded As Q1 Results Confirm Earnings Improvement Direction For Banking Giant
• Neutral Sentiment: Separate commentary noted Citi expects India IPO activity to recover later this year, which is positive for capital markets activity but is more of a medium-term driver than an immediate stock catalyst. Citi sees India IPOs hitting fresh records despite challenges
• Negative Sentiment: One potential overhang is governance pressure: a separate report said more Citi shareholders voted against the bank’s say-on-pay resolution, reflecting concern about executive compensation and Jane Fraser’s pay package. More Citi shareholders vote ‘no’ on say-on-pay

Citigroup Trading Down 0.1%

NYSE C opened at $125.10 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $213.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.50, a PEG ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 1.14. Citigroup has a one year low of $71.65 and a one year high of $135.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The business’s fifty day moving average is $121.04 and its 200-day moving average is $114.84.

Citigroup (NYSE:C) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 14th. The company reported $3.06 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.63 by $0.43. The company had revenue of $24.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $22.96 billion. Citigroup had a return on equity of 9.19% and a net margin of 9.35%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.96 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Citigroup will post 10.65 EPS for the current year.

Citigroup announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Thursday, May 7th that permits the company to repurchase $30.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to reacquire up to 13.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Citigroup Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 22nd. Investors of record on Monday, May 4th were issued a $0.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 4th. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. Citigroup’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.74%.

About Citigroup

Citigroup Inc is a global financial services company headquartered in New York City with roots tracing back to the City Bank of New York, founded in 1812. The modern Citigroup was created through the 1998 merger of Citicorp and Travelers Group and has since operated as a diversified bank holding company that provides a broad range of banking and financial products and services to consumers, corporations, governments and institutions worldwide.

Citi’s principal businesses include retail and commercial banking, credit card and consumer lending products, wealth management and private banking, and a full suite of institutional services.