Analyzing Citigroup (C) and The Competition

Citigroup (NYSE:C) is one of 924 publicly-traded companies in the “Banks” industry, but how does it compare to its peers? We will compare Citigroup to similar businesses based on the strength of its institutional ownership, risk, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings and valuation.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Citigroup and its peers, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Citigroup	0	4	13	1	2.83
Citigroup Competitors	7404	29824	27206	1376	2.34

Citigroup currently has a consensus price target of $149.33, indicating a potential upside of 17.49%. As a group, “Banks” companies have a potential upside of 15.71%. Given Citigroup’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Citigroup is more favorable than its peers.

Volatility and Risk

Citigroup has a beta of 1.13, indicating that its share price is 13% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Citigroup’s peers have a beta of 0.61, indicating that their average share price is 39% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Citigroup and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Citigroup	10.23%	10.15%	0.72%
Citigroup Competitors	14.84%	9.28%	0.91%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Citigroup and its peers gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Citigroup	$168.30 billion	$14.31 billion	13.73
Citigroup Competitors	$9.85 billion	$2.40 billion	20.13

Citigroup has higher revenue and earnings than its peers. Citigroup is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

71.7% of Citigroup shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 47.5% of shares of all “Banks” companies are owned by institutional investors. 0.1% of Citigroup shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 9.8% of shares of all “Banks” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Citigroup pays an annual dividend of $2.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. Citigroup pays out 28.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Banks” companies pay a dividend yield of 9.1% and pay out 29.0% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Citigroup has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years.

Summary

Citigroup beats its peers on 10 of the 15 factors compared.

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. The Markets segment offers sales and trading services for equities, foreign exchange, rates, spread products, and commodities to corporate, institutional, and public sector clients; and market-making services, including asset classes, risk management solutions, financing, prime brokerage, research, securities clearing, and settlement. The banking segment includes investment banking; advisory services related to mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, restructurings, and corporate defense activities; and corporate lending, which includes corporate and commercial banking. The U.S. Personal Banking segment provides co-branded cards and retail banking services. The Wealth segment provides financial services to high-net-worth clients through banking, lending, mortgages, investment, custody, and trust product offerings; and to professional industries, including law firms, consulting groups, accounting, and asset management. The company was founded in 1812 and is headquartered in New York, New York.