I have said so many times that Citigroup is the worst performing of the big banks. The last earnings were, however, really good for the bank. Did I change my opinion?
Citigroup is the third largest bank in America by assets under management with $1.8 Trillion as AUM. The bank was founded in 1812 as Citi Bank of New York. In 1998, it merged with Travelers group to form Citigroup. In 2001, the Travelers Companies was spun off from Citigroup.
Citigroup was greatly affected during the 2008 global financial crisis because the banks had a lot of CDOs (Collateralized Debt Obligations). The stock price of the company collapsed by more than 90%. The US government had to save the company not only through TARP but also nationalised the bank by buying preferred non-voting shares. Since then, the company paid all its debts to the US government but it still has a lot restructuring to do.
3 revenue streams: 1. Global Consumer Banking 46% 2. Institutional Banking 50% 3. Corporate/others 4%
Revenue by market: - 49% North America - 16% Europe, Middle East and Africa - 14% Latin America - 21% Asia
The bank has 100 million customers in 19 markets as a global consumer bank and has institutional clients in 98 markets.
Fundamentals: EPS: $6.65 P/E: 9.23 P/B: 0.84 BVPS: $73 Yield: 2.30% Debt to equity: 1.32 Current ratio: 0.50
The main problem of the bank is that they cannot grow earnings. Earnings have been stagnant for years. The main reasons for this: 1. The lost market shares to competitors when they were in troubles in 2008 2. FED watching them closely 3. The rest of the world is not doing that great and the bank is a global bank
As long as earnings is not growing, I don't see Citigroup as a good investment despite the fact that it is undervalued.