Citigroup (C, Financial) traded 30.97 million shares on February 17. Why such a huge volume? Analysts' mean recommendation for this week is 2.2, slightly inclined to buy with a gauge (strong buy) 1.0 - 5.0 (sell).
The stock is way behind its median price target of $42.50, according to 22 brokers polled by Yahoo Finance. This is undoubtedly a factor which will draw the attention of investors.
Bank of America Corporation (BAC, Financial), HSBC Holdings Plc (HBC, Financial) and JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM, Financial) are its direct competitors. Citigroup is the third-largest U.S. bank by assets and has a market capitalization of $96.25 billion.
Citigroup remained in headlines nearly all of the previous week, also helping to draw investors in.
New Appointments and Departures:
BNP Paribas SA, France’s largest bank, hired two members to its Japan equities squad, counting ex-Citigroup MD Toshiyuki Johno.
On Feb. 20, 2012, the bank appointed Johno, 46, as a commodity industry analyst, in accordance with a memo obtained by Bloomberg News. It also employed Benjamin Rameau, 30, for equity sales, from Deutsche Bank AG on February 17.
Citigroup hired a new chief of its Japanese markets business as CEO Vikram Pandit aims to re-establish in the country rather than obtain the third regulatory penalty in seven years in December.
In accordance with a statement on the New York-based bank’s website, Suneel Bakhshi was hired as president and CEO of Citigroup Global Markets Japan. In relation to the statement, Bakhshi is presently chief risk officer of Citigroup’s commercial bank.
Bakhshi is taking heat from Brian Mccappin, who the bank stated in December would step down following news that the division was forbidden from trading linked to the London and Tokyo interbank presented rates for two weeks. The Japanese Financial Services Agency stated that Citigroup employees attempted to shockingly influence the rates. The bank was suspended from seeking sales of certain products to retail customers rather than being required to explain the risks.
Employees Stock Ownership Programs:
On Feb. 17, 2012, Citigroup will allow managers of its hedge funds to hold part of the business to rules that restrict shareholders' cash in the unit, COO John Havens stated.
Havens stated in an interview that staff in the Citi Capital Advisors division, or CCA, will obtain a “significant” share in supervision of the funds. He added that this will amplify as New York-based Citigroup pulls out its own money and catches the attention of outside investors to comply with the Volcker rule, which limits deposit-taking banks from making bets with their own assets.
Havens commented during an interview in his 39th-floor corner office at Citigroup's Greenwich Street building in Manhattan that their rivals are an owner-operated model. "It was constantly in the plans but you have to really have a business that you are content with to go do it."
Whistle-Blowing in Citigroup:
Sherry Hunt stated that her Citigroup quality-control squad was still discovering imperfections in the latest loans that comprised altered tax forms, straw buyers, and borrowers who listed fictitious companies, four years after rotten mortgages had prompted an international financial crisis.
In proportion to a criticism filed on February 16, 2012 by the US Attorney’s Office in Manhattan, rather than reporting the flaws to the Federal Housing Administration, the bank burdened the organization with losses by incorrectly announcing the loans fit for its federal insurance program. Citigroup decided to compensate $158.3 million to resolve the claims, and confessed that it certified loans for FHA backing that didn’t meet the criteria.
Hunt commented in an interview yesterday after submitting a sealed court case in opposition to New York-based Citigroup in August that the government joined will get $31 million of that figure, before taxes and attorney’s fees, as a whistle-blower. The settlement, which included bad behavior spanning 2004 to the present, shows Citigroup has persistent problems in its O’Fallon, Mo.-based CitiMortgage division.
New Market Developments:
Citigroup received authorization from the China Banking Regulatory Commission to launch credit cards in the country, turning out to be the second foreign bank to acquire the right to do so in the earth’s most populous land.
Citigroup will launch its own retail and commercial cards in China this year, the bank stated in an e-mailed statement today. Bank of East Asia, Hong Kong’s third-biggest lender, was the first non-mainland provider of credit cards.
Stephen Bird, chief executive officer of Citigroup Asia Pacific, commented in the statement that their capability to launch a credit and commercial card proposition adds to their healthy development momentum in this major market.
Foreign banks devoid of regulatory authorization “co-brand” with Chinese operators to provide credit cards and accomplish payments via China UnionPay Data Co. The US has complained to the World Trade Organization in opposition to the restrictions, citing the rules contravene a pledge China made when it entered the WTO in 2001 to launch card markets to overseas processors by the end of 2006.
Will Citigroup Boost Its Dividend Yield in 2012?
Citigroup pays an annual dividend of $0.04, equating to a dividend yield of 0.10%, with a dividend payout ratio of 1%. It has five year dividend growth of ”’72.65%. The company also posted its first positive cash flow since 2007, as 2010 cash flow was $2.5 billion. EPS was $3.66 (ttm), and S&P forecasts just $3.70 for 2012 growing to $5 in 2013.
I think there is a strong possibility of a dividend hike in 2012, most likely in the second or third quarter. Regardless of a low growth prospective for 2012, Citigroup restored its dividend in 2011, and a penny per share per quarter symbolized just 0.5% of operating cash flow for the TFQ (tribal financial quarter) ending June 2011.
Citigroup has showed that it expects to give capital back to shareholders in 2012, which denotes stock repurchases, elevated dividends, or both. I anticipate that the company will fulfill on these promises, though I find it improbable that any dividend hike will be dramatic.
The stock is way behind its median price target of $42.50, according to 22 brokers polled by Yahoo Finance. This is undoubtedly a factor which will draw the attention of investors.
Bank of America Corporation (BAC, Financial), HSBC Holdings Plc (HBC, Financial) and JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM, Financial) are its direct competitors. Citigroup is the third-largest U.S. bank by assets and has a market capitalization of $96.25 billion.
Citigroup remained in headlines nearly all of the previous week, also helping to draw investors in.
New Appointments and Departures:
BNP Paribas SA, France’s largest bank, hired two members to its Japan equities squad, counting ex-Citigroup MD Toshiyuki Johno.
On Feb. 20, 2012, the bank appointed Johno, 46, as a commodity industry analyst, in accordance with a memo obtained by Bloomberg News. It also employed Benjamin Rameau, 30, for equity sales, from Deutsche Bank AG on February 17.
Citigroup hired a new chief of its Japanese markets business as CEO Vikram Pandit aims to re-establish in the country rather than obtain the third regulatory penalty in seven years in December.
In accordance with a statement on the New York-based bank’s website, Suneel Bakhshi was hired as president and CEO of Citigroup Global Markets Japan. In relation to the statement, Bakhshi is presently chief risk officer of Citigroup’s commercial bank.
Bakhshi is taking heat from Brian Mccappin, who the bank stated in December would step down following news that the division was forbidden from trading linked to the London and Tokyo interbank presented rates for two weeks. The Japanese Financial Services Agency stated that Citigroup employees attempted to shockingly influence the rates. The bank was suspended from seeking sales of certain products to retail customers rather than being required to explain the risks.
Employees Stock Ownership Programs:
On Feb. 17, 2012, Citigroup will allow managers of its hedge funds to hold part of the business to rules that restrict shareholders' cash in the unit, COO John Havens stated.
Havens stated in an interview that staff in the Citi Capital Advisors division, or CCA, will obtain a “significant” share in supervision of the funds. He added that this will amplify as New York-based Citigroup pulls out its own money and catches the attention of outside investors to comply with the Volcker rule, which limits deposit-taking banks from making bets with their own assets.
Havens commented during an interview in his 39th-floor corner office at Citigroup's Greenwich Street building in Manhattan that their rivals are an owner-operated model. "It was constantly in the plans but you have to really have a business that you are content with to go do it."
Whistle-Blowing in Citigroup:
Sherry Hunt stated that her Citigroup quality-control squad was still discovering imperfections in the latest loans that comprised altered tax forms, straw buyers, and borrowers who listed fictitious companies, four years after rotten mortgages had prompted an international financial crisis.
In proportion to a criticism filed on February 16, 2012 by the US Attorney’s Office in Manhattan, rather than reporting the flaws to the Federal Housing Administration, the bank burdened the organization with losses by incorrectly announcing the loans fit for its federal insurance program. Citigroup decided to compensate $158.3 million to resolve the claims, and confessed that it certified loans for FHA backing that didn’t meet the criteria.
Hunt commented in an interview yesterday after submitting a sealed court case in opposition to New York-based Citigroup in August that the government joined will get $31 million of that figure, before taxes and attorney’s fees, as a whistle-blower. The settlement, which included bad behavior spanning 2004 to the present, shows Citigroup has persistent problems in its O’Fallon, Mo.-based CitiMortgage division.
New Market Developments:
Citigroup received authorization from the China Banking Regulatory Commission to launch credit cards in the country, turning out to be the second foreign bank to acquire the right to do so in the earth’s most populous land.
Citigroup will launch its own retail and commercial cards in China this year, the bank stated in an e-mailed statement today. Bank of East Asia, Hong Kong’s third-biggest lender, was the first non-mainland provider of credit cards.
Stephen Bird, chief executive officer of Citigroup Asia Pacific, commented in the statement that their capability to launch a credit and commercial card proposition adds to their healthy development momentum in this major market.
Foreign banks devoid of regulatory authorization “co-brand” with Chinese operators to provide credit cards and accomplish payments via China UnionPay Data Co. The US has complained to the World Trade Organization in opposition to the restrictions, citing the rules contravene a pledge China made when it entered the WTO in 2001 to launch card markets to overseas processors by the end of 2006.
Will Citigroup Boost Its Dividend Yield in 2012?
Citigroup pays an annual dividend of $0.04, equating to a dividend yield of 0.10%, with a dividend payout ratio of 1%. It has five year dividend growth of ”’72.65%. The company also posted its first positive cash flow since 2007, as 2010 cash flow was $2.5 billion. EPS was $3.66 (ttm), and S&P forecasts just $3.70 for 2012 growing to $5 in 2013.
I think there is a strong possibility of a dividend hike in 2012, most likely in the second or third quarter. Regardless of a low growth prospective for 2012, Citigroup restored its dividend in 2011, and a penny per share per quarter symbolized just 0.5% of operating cash flow for the TFQ (tribal financial quarter) ending June 2011.
Citigroup has showed that it expects to give capital back to shareholders in 2012, which denotes stock repurchases, elevated dividends, or both. I anticipate that the company will fulfill on these promises, though I find it improbable that any dividend hike will be dramatic.
