Citi Sails Past Estimates, Wind-Down of Citi Holdings Continues

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) is out with its third-quarter earnings report. Vikram Pandit and friends turned in earnings of $1.06 per share and $19.4 billion in revenue. These results compare to Thomson Reuters estimates of $0.96 EPS and $18.35 billion in revenue. The results for the same period a year ago were $1.23 EPS and $20.83 billion in revenue.

Today’s earnings report has all sorts of items. If you back out the losses, charges and add in the gains, the earnings came to $0.15 per share and $468 million net earnings, and after adjustments the sales would have been $14 billion. Again, those are the net numbers, and the comparable earnings and sales viewed by analysts is the reported figures in the first paragraph.

Citigroup’s Basel I Tier 1 common ratio is 12.7% and its estimated Basel III Tier 1 Common Ratio increased to 8.6%. The biggest issues that some investors will focus on are the book values. Book value per share increased to $63.59 and the tangible book value per share increased to $52.70 per share.

Citigroup said that its deposits grew 11% to $945 billion. The loans were reported as follows: Citigroup loans rose by 3% to $658 billion, while Citicorp loans grew by 11% to $537 billion. Citi Holdings assets were down by 31% to $171 billion, and this figure now represents only 9% of the total Citigroup asset base.

Citigroup shares are trading up about 1.6% at $35.29 in the premarket after closing at $34.75 on Friday. The 52-week trading range is $23.30 to $38.40.

JON C. OGG