Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.56

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, July 18th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 5th will be given 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 an increase from Citigroup’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53.

Citigroup has increased its dividend payment 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 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

NYSE C opened at $58.76 on Friday. Citigroup has a 52-week low of $38.17 and a 52-week high of $67.81. The company has a fifty day moving average of $63.03 and a 200-day moving average of $60.20. The company has a market capitalization of $112.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.46, a P/E/G ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 1.46. 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 (NYSE:C) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 12th. The company reported $1.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.39 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $20.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $20.07 billion. Citigroup had a return on equity of 6.26% and a net margin of 4.95%. The company’s revenue was up 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.37 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Citigroup will post 5.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Citigroup from $66.00 to $79.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Argus lifted their target price on shares of Citigroup from $70.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 15th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target 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. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Citigroup from $63.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, June 17th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their target price on Citigroup from $60.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $68.06.

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.