Citigroup Q2 Profits Beat Expectations Despite Trading Drop
Citigroup Inc reported a quarterly profit that beat analysts’ estimates as trading revenue held up better than the company’s forecast and loans grew.
The lender said markets revenue declined about 7% in the second quarter from a year earlier, smaller than the 12% drop Chief Financial Officer John Gerspach had projected at a conference two weeks before the end of the quarter.
Client trading surged a year earlier around UK’s Brexit vote.
The fourth-biggest U.S. bank by assets said on Friday net income fell 3.2% to $ 3.87 billion in the second quarter ended June 30.
Earnings per share was $ 1.28, topping analysts’ average estimate of $ 1.21, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
JPMorgan Chase & Co, the biggest U.S. bank by assets, also reported a better-than-expected rise in quarterly profit earlier on Friday, helped by higher interest rates and loan growth that cushioned a decline in trading.
Citigroup’s total revenue rose 2% to $ 17.90 billion and beat estimates of $ 17.37 billion.
Fixed-income trading revenue fell 6%, while equity trading revenue dropped 11%.
Loans at the end of the period were up about 2% from a year earlier, as well from the end of March, indicating a new momentum for lending.
Operating expenses rose 1.3% to $ 10.51 billion. But the ratio of expenses to revenue remained at 59%.
Tangible book value per share increased 6% to $ 67.32.
Citigroup’s shares were nearly flat in premarket trading. Up to Thursday’s close, the stock had gained 12.8% this year.
The shares have climbed toward their tangible book value since mid-April largely in anticipation of the company being allowed by the Federal Reserve to use excess capital to buy back stock.
Citigroup got the go-ahead on June to repurchase up to $ 15.6 billion of common stock over the next year – nearly twice as much as the year before – as well as double its quarterly dividend to 32 cents per share, bringing total payouts to $ 18.9 billion for the period.
Wells Fargo & Co, the third-biggest U.S. bank by assets, also reported on Friday.
