Piper Sandler Reiterates Overweight Rating for Citigroup (NYSE:C)

Piper Sandler reaffirmed their overweight rating on shares of Citigroup (NYSE:C) in a research note released on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $77.00 price target on the stock, down from their previous price target of $83.00.

C has been the subject of a number of other reports. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on Citigroup from $90.00 to $80.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Bank of America dropped their price target on shares of Citigroup from $90.00 to $89.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Citigroup from $110.00 to $109.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Truist Financial dropped their target price on Citigroup from $84.00 to $79.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Barclays upgraded Citigroup from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $84.61.

Citigroup Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:C opened at $62.02 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $71.82 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $70.91. Citigroup has a 52 week low of $53.51 and a 52 week high of $84.74. The company has a quick ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $116.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.42, a PEG ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 1.29.

Citigroup (NYSE:C) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 15th. The company reported $1.96 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.84 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $21.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $21.34 billion. Citigroup had a return on equity of 6.62% and a net margin of 7.43%. On average, analysts expect that Citigroup will post 7.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Citigroup announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, January 15th that permits the company to repurchase $20.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to repurchase up to 13.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Citigroup Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 23rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 5th will be given a dividend of $0.56 per share. This represents a $2.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.61%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 5th. Citigroup’s payout ratio is 37.65%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Citigroup news, insider Sara Wechter sold 15,125 shares of Citigroup stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.01, for a total value of $1,225,276.25. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 109,780 shares in the company, valued at $8,893,277.80. The trade was a 12.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Mark Mason sold 58,465 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.21, for a total transaction of $4,864,872.65. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 217,331 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,084,112.51. The trade was a 21.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 103,590 shares of company stock valued at $8,523,149 over the last three months. 0.08% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Ritholtz Wealth Management boosted its stake in Citigroup by 1.1% in the first quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 70,851 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,030,000 after acquiring an additional 784 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Wealth Management boosted its position in shares of Citigroup by 14.8% in the 1st quarter. Massachusetts Wealth Management now owns 49,927 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,544,000 after purchasing an additional 6,420 shares in the last quarter. MFA Wealth Services grew its stake in Citigroup by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. MFA Wealth Services now owns 6,742 shares of the company’s stock worth $479,000 after buying an additional 217 shares during the last quarter. Grant Private Wealth Management Inc acquired a new position in Citigroup during the 1st quarter valued at about $244,000. Finally, Hoey Investments Inc. raised its stake in Citigroup by 278.2% in the first quarter. Hoey Investments Inc. now owns 904 shares of the company’s stock valued at $64,000 after buying an additional 665 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.72% of the company’s stock.

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.