UPDATE: Citigroup Posts Drop In Q4 Profit

reported a drop in its fourth-quarter profit. The New York-based company reported a quarterly profit of $350 million, versus a year-ago profit of $2.46 billion. On a per-share basis, the company posted a profit of $0.06 per share, compared to $0.77 per share. Excluding CVA/DVA and the items in the year-ago quarter, earnings slipped to $0.06 per diluted share, from $0.82 per diluted share. The latest quarter included legal and related expenses and repositioning charges of $3.5 billion, versus $1.0 billion in the previous year period. Its revenue came in flat at $17.81 billion, but adjusted revenue dropped 1%. Analysts were expecting earnings of $0.09 per share on revenue of $18.51 billion. Citicorp revenue came in unchanged at $16.5 billion in the fourth quarter 2014, while Global Consumer Banking revenue was unchanged at $9.4 billion. Institutional Clients Group revenue gained 2% to $7.2 billion. Revenue from fixed-income markets declined 16% to $1.99 billion. Citigroup's operating expenses rose 21% to $14.4 billion in the quarter. Citigroup's loans declined 3% versus previous year period to $645 billion as of quarter end, while deposits dropped 7% to $899 billion as of quarter end. Michael Corbat, Chief Executive Officer of Citigroup, said, "While the overall results for 2014 fell short of our expectations, we did make significant progress on our top priorities. During the year, we increased our market share among our target institutional clients, grew our core loan book, and improved both our net interest revenue and margin from 2013 levels. For the first time since its establishment, Citi Holdings was profitable for the full year and we accelerated the utilization of our deferred tax assets.” Citigroup's shares dropped 1.12% to $48.50 in pre-market trading.