Friday, May 6, 2011

UPDATED: Ahead of Today's Stock Split: Citigroup Gets an Upgrade From Morgan Stanley, Dick Bove Says it Could Triple (C)

Update below.
Original post:
The rule of thumb is to wait until after a reverse split before buying but it appears some folks are getting antsy.
The Stock is up 9 cents at $4.57.
From Benzinga:
Morgan Stanley is upgrading shares of Citigroup (NYSE: C) to Overweight, and it has a $6 price target on shares.
In a note to investors, Morgan Stanley writes, "Upgrading Citi to Overweight based on a faster roll-off of non-core assets (and resulting lower NPV of losses), sizable and faster growth in the international business, and significant capital return to shareholders."...MORE
And from TheStreet:

Citigroup to Triple By 2013: Bove
Citigroup(C_) and Bank of America(BAC_) still offer massive upside to investors, according to an analyst who has turned decidedly more bearish on the financial sector in recent weeks.

Richard Bove, analyst at Rochdale Securities, has been pounding the table on bank stocks for nearly two years. On May 25 of last year, he predicted Citigroup and Bank of America would sextuple by 2015. Since then, Citigroup is up by more than 19%, but Bank of America, which has been besieged by mortgage-related setbacks, has seen its shares fall by nearly the same amount that Citigroup has risen. 
Bove, meanwhile, has turned decidedly more bearish. He says he has recently downgraded some 25% of the stocks he covers. He is concerned a massive bout of inflation will cause a repeat of the 1970's when bank earnings surged but stocks went nowhere because the earnings were in devalued dollars....MORE

The 1 for 10 reverse will be effective after the close of trading today, here's the March 21 announcement.

UPDATE: "More Analyst Commentary on Citigroup's Reverse Stock Split (C)"