Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) Increases Dividend to $0.56 Per Share

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, July 18th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, August 5th will be paid a dividend of 0.56 per share on Friday, August 23rd. This represents a $2.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.81%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 5th. This is a positive change from Citigroup’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53.

Citigroup has raised its dividend by an average of 0.7% per year over the last three years. Citigroup has a dividend payout ratio of 31.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Citigroup to earn $7.14 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.24 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 31.4%.

Citigroup Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:C opened at $58.76 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $63.03 and its 200-day simple moving average is $60.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 0.94. Citigroup has a one year low of $38.17 and a one year high of $67.81. The firm has a market cap of $112.08 billion, a PE ratio of 16.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 1.46.

Citigroup (NYSE:C) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 12th. The company reported $1.52 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.39 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $20.14 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $20.07 billion. Citigroup had a return on equity of 6.26% and a net margin of 4.95%. Citigroup’s quarterly revenue was up 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.37 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Citigroup will post 5.85 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Citigroup from $63.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. Argus lifted their price objective on shares of Citigroup from $70.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 15th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on Citigroup from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, June 20th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on Citigroup from $56.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Citigroup from $66.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $68.06.

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.