Citigroup Q2 Profit Beats Expectations, Shares Rise

Shares of Citigroup Inc C reported 2 percent in pre-market trading after the company reported better-than-expected earnings for its second quarter. The New York-based bank posted a quarterly profit of $4.85 billion, or $1.51 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $181 million, or $0.03 per share. Excluding legal costs and accounting items, Citigroup's earnings climbed to $1.45 per share from $1.24 per share. Its revenue rose slightly to $19.47 billion from $19.43 billion, while adjusted revenue slipped 1.5 percent to $19.16 billion. Analysts were expecting a profit of $1.34 per share on revenue of $19.11 billion. The average estimate among 45 Estimize users was for earnings of $1.40 per share and revenue of $19.46 billion. Citigroup's operating expenses dropped 30 percent to $10.9 billion in the quarter. Operating expenses in Citicorp dropped 6 percent to $9.8 billion in the quarter. Revenue from Citicorp gained 2 percent to $17.8 billion. Global Consumer Banking revenue dropped 4 percent to $8.5 billion, while Institutional Clients Group revenue gained 6 percent year-over-year to $8.9 billion. Citi Holdings revenue came in at $1.7 billion in the second quarter. Michael Corbat, Chief Executive Officer of Citigroup, said, "Our results for the quarter show very balanced performance across our business lines. We grew loans and deposits in constant dollars in Global Consumer Banking, while also gaining wallet share among target clients in our Institutional Clients Group. Citi Holdings remained profitable and we again reduced its assets, having completed the sales of additional consumer businesses. As we increased our capital return, we still continued to grow our regulatory capital, raising our Common Equity Tier 1 Capital ratio to 11.4%. Through active expense and balance sheet discipline, we are on track to reach our financial targets for the year." Citigroup shares rose 2.37 percent to $57.80 in pre-market trading.