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

Shares of Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) have earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the seventeen research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have given a hold recommendation and eleven have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $73.00.

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Citigroup from $85.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of Citigroup from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Citigroup from $63.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Citigroup from $77.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Citigroup from $86.00 to $82.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 16th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Citigroup

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Citigroup by 13.3% in the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 73,317 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,653,000 after purchasing an additional 8,593 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Citigroup by 13.4% in the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 201,456 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,739,000 after purchasing an additional 23,774 shares in the last quarter. BDF Gestion bought a new stake in Citigroup during the 2nd quarter valued at $3,861,000. KBC Group NV raised its holdings in Citigroup by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,138,511 shares of the company’s stock valued at $71,270,000 after buying an additional 20,291 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Summit Global Investments raised its holdings in Citigroup by 289.5% during the 3rd quarter. Summit Global Investments now owns 30,640 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,918,000 after buying an additional 22,774 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.72% of the company’s stock.

Citigroup Stock Down 1.4 %

C stock opened at $69.74 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $64.77 and a 200-day moving average of $62.94. Citigroup has a fifty-two week low of $44.56 and a fifty-two week high of $71.19. The company has a market capitalization of $131.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.21, a PEG ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.55, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 0.96.

Citigroup (NYSE:C) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The company reported $1.51 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.31 by $0.20. Citigroup had a net margin of 4.70% and a return on equity of 6.19%. The firm had revenue of $20.32 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $19.86 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.52 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Citigroup will post 5.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Citigroup Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 5th were paid a $0.56 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 4th. This represents a $2.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.21%. Citigroup’s dividend payout ratio is presently 64.93%.

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.