BUZZ-HSBC: Citi ups to "buy" after divestments, stock underperformance
** Banking giant's shares up 1 pct, second-largest FTSE-100 gainer after Citi upgrades rating on co to "buy" from "neutral", PT to 635p from 625p
** Analysts cite improvement to capital ratios from upcoming divestments and recent stock price weakness for upgrade
** Shares (Frankfurt: DI6.F - news) have fallen about 4 pct in the year to Friday's close, underperforming a 3 pct rise in the FTSE-100 and more starkly, a 19 pct rise for the European bank index
** HSBC announced in June that it would cut about 50,000 jobs in order to pay a higher dividend
** Of 28 analysts covering the stock, 7 have a rating of "buy" or higher, 16 have a rating of "hold", and 5 have a rating of "underperform", median PT of $9.85 (631 pence) according to Thomson Reuters (Dusseldorf: TOC.DU - news) data (1 British pound = $1.5608) (venkateshasoumithri.mamidipudi.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)