Citigroup (C) delivered a bit of good news and bad news in its fourth-quarter results Wednesday, beating on earnings while missing revenue targets. Wall Street analysts, however, seem focused on the positives.
The banking giant reported fourth-quarter revenue (net of interest expense) of $19.87 billion, up 2% from the same period last year but falling short of the $20.53 billion analysts had penciled in. Strip out the messy divestiture-related impacts from the planned sale of AO Citibank in Russia, though, and revenue actually climbed 8%.
Net income wasn't pretty on the surface, dropping 13% year over year to $2.5 billion. But there's context here: the bank took a $1.1 billion after-tax hit related to exiting Russia. When you adjust for that, net income came in at $3.6 billion, and earnings per share landed at $1.81, comfortably ahead of the $1.68 consensus estimate.
CFO Mark Mason addressed some geopolitical concerns on the earnings call, noting that the bank is keeping a close eye on current market reactions. He emphasized that Citigroup has minimal exposure to the situation everyone's watching, pointing out that the bank sold its Venezuela operations back in 2021, including both corporate and retail businesses. While Citi is monitoring developments, Mason stayed tight-lipped about any potential future business plans involving the country.
Investors seemed to like what they heard. Citigroup shares jumped 4.1% to $117.00 on Thursday.
Following the earnings release, a couple of Wall Street analysts decided to bump up their price targets on the stock.
- Oppenheimer analyst Chris Kotowski kept his Outperform rating intact and lifted his price target from $141 to $144.
- Morgan Stanley analyst Betsy Graseck maintained her Overweight rating and nudged the price target up from $134 to $135.
Both moves suggest analysts see room for the stock to run higher, even after a quarter that didn't exactly knock it out of the park on all metrics.
