Citigroup (NYSE:C) to Buyback $20.00 billion in Outstanding Stock

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

C has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Barclays raised Citigroup from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Citigroup from $72.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Citigroup from $85.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Citigroup from $73.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Truist Financial initiated coverage on Citigroup in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $85.00 price objective on the stock. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $80.13.

Citigroup Price Performance

Shares of C stock traded up $4.98 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $78.48. The company had a trading volume of 44,885,577 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,525,404. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.55, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.96. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $70.60 and its 200-day moving average price is $65.22. Citigroup has a 52-week low of $50.51 and a 52-week high of $79.25. The company has a market capitalization of $148.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.75, a P/E/G ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 1.43.

Citigroup (NYSE:C) last released 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. The business had revenue of $19.58 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $19.51 billion. Citigroup had a net margin of 4.70% and a return on equity of 6.19%. The business’s revenue was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.84 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Citigroup will post 5.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Citigroup Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.56 per share. This represents a $2.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 3rd. 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.