7 Best Fortune 500 Dividend Stocks to Invest In Now

2. Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 107

Dividend Yield as of December 31: 2.04%

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) is a leading global bank for institutions with cross-border needs, a global provider in wealth management, and a U.S. personal bank.

On December 29, Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) said its board approved the sale of its Russian unit, AO Citibank, to Renaissance Capital. The transaction is expected to result in a pre-tax loss of about $1.2 billion, largely tied to currency translation. An SEC filing said the deal is slated to close in the first half of 2026.

Citigroup has weighed an exit from Russia for several years as US and EU sanctions intensified. Other lenders have taken similar steps. Earlier this year, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. received approval to sell its Russian business. The pullback began even before Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022. That year, Citigroup said it would wind down consumer and local commercial banking in the country and halt nearly all institutional banking services. What remained were operations needed to meet certain legal and regulatory obligations, according to the bank.

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) later reached an agreement with RenCap, one of Russia’s oldest investment banks, to sell the rest of its operations. In November, Putin signed an order allowing the deal to proceed.

The bank said the loss is largely due to currency-translation adjustments and cautioned that the figure could change if currency markets move. Citigroup made the following statement:

“The overall divestiture of the remaining business operations is expected to provide a benefit to Citi’s CET1 Capital, primarily driven by the deconsolidation of associated risk-weighted assets.”