Share Buyback Program Declared by Citigroup (NYSE:C) Board of Directors

Citigroup (NYSE:C) announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, January 15th, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase $20.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to repurchase up to 13.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Citigroup Stock Up 2.0 %

C opened at $80.05 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $151.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.59 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.55, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 0.96. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $70.99 and its 200 day moving average is $65.41. Citigroup has a fifty-two week low of $50.51 and a fifty-two week high of $80.45.

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

Citigroup Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.56 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $2.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.80%. Citigroup’s payout ratio is 64.93%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

C has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Citigroup from $77.00 to $86.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Citigroup from $104.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Truist Financial started coverage on Citigroup in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $85.00 target price on the stock. Oppenheimer cut their price target on Citigroup from $110.00 to $102.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Citigroup from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $83.93.

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.