Citi profit jumps 24%, beats forecasts
Citi profit jumps 24%, beats forecasts
New York: Citigroup Inc’s second-quarter profit jumped 24%, beating expectations, as the bank lost less money on bad loans.
The third-largest US bank by assets said on Friday it earned $3.34 billion, or $1.09 per share. That compared with a year-earlier profit of $2.7 billion, or 90 cents per share, adjusted for a reverse stock split this year.
Analysts on average had expected 96 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
It is the sixth consecutive quarterly profit for Citigroup, which needed $45 billion in government bailouts to survive the financial crisis. Since December, when the US government sold off the last of its common share stake in the bank, chief executive Vikram Pandit has been trying to show investors that Citigroup can move beyond recovery to growth.
But boosting business has been difficult this year for most US banks, as weak fixed-income trading and market volatility have weighed heavily on results.
Citigroup said quarterly revenue fell almost 7% from a year earlier to $20.6 billion but was slightly better than expected.
“They’re fixing a lot of their problems, but they’re not out of the woods yet," said Matt McCormick, portfolio manager at Bahl & Gaynor Investment Counsel.
Citigroup shares were up nearly 3% to $40.15 in premarket trading.
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