On January 14th, Citigroup (C) had an indicated dividend yield of 7.43%. The next day, the company slashed its quarterly dividend from $0.54 per share to $0.32 per share -- moving the yield down to 4.75%. As shown in the chart below, the decline in Citi's stock price has caused the dividend yield to tick higher and higher in recent weeks. The current dividend yield stands at an attractive 6.12%. At this rate, Citi's yield will be all the way up to pre-cut highs in no time. To get to the 7.43% mark, Citi's stock needs to fall from its current price of $20.91 to $17.20 -- a big decline, but not out of the question in this environment. Will their then be talk of another dividend cut, or have these declines gotten way overdone?
After the yield drops to zero, you can throw the chart away.
Posted by: stan | March 09, 2008 at 02:07 PM