Citigroup earnings outstrip Wall Street's forecasts, but revenue is light
Citigroup reported a quarterly profit $1.14 a share on Wednesday, topping Wall Street's expectations, though revenue of $17.012 billion missed forecasts.
The bank was expected to post fourth-quarter earnings of $1.12 a share on revenue of $17.3 billion, according to the consensus of analysts polled by Reuters.
"We had a strong finish to 2016, bringing momentum into this year. We drove revenue growth in our businesses and demonstrated strong expense discipline across the firm," Citi CEO Michael Corbat said in a release.
The bank reported a 36-percent rise in fixed income markets revenue to $3 billion, and a 15-percent rise in equity markets revenue.
Full-year 2016 net income of $14.9 billion on revenue of $69.9 billion marked 13 percent and 8.5 percent declines from the prior year, respectively.
Shares were down by almost 1 percent in early trade.
Fourth quarter revenue from international consumer banking rose 5 percent from a year earlier to $2.9 billion, with Latin America up 5 percent and Asia up 4 percent. For the full year, revenue from international consumer banking was unchanged, while net income fell 4 percent.
In a media call following the earnings report, Citigroup CFO John Gerspach played down any uncertainty that President-elect Donald Trump's trade policies may spark in markets over the coming months.
"We've been around for 205 years at this point. We've kind of seen it all over the course of time. We'll deal with whatever people throw at us ... I actually think there's a lot of opportunity that can come out of all this. We'll see," he said.
Gerspach added that any changes in trade policy would likely be about creating a level playing field and making the United States more competitive.
The quarter marks the last time the financial institution will report the results of Citi Holdings separately. That business segment now represents only 3 percent of Citigroup's balance sheet, with $54 billion in assets but was profitable for the tenth quarter in a row.
At its peak, Holdings had more than $800 billion in assets and sometimes posted multi-billion dollar losses in a quarter.
Citicorp is the division that generates the bulk of Citigroup's revenue.
Financial stocks have pulled back over the last few trading days, but remain the best performer in the S&P 500 since the U.S. presidential election with gains of more than 17.5 percent. Citi shares are up nearly 17 percent over that time.