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Citigroup Earnings: Revenue Growth Is Working, but We Won’t Know About Expenses Until 2024

We view the stock as undervalued, but caution that a lot of work remains for Citigroup.

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What We Thought of Citigroup’s Earnings

Citigroup C reported earnings ahead of our expectations, with earnings per share of $1.63 compared with our forecast of $1.50 and FactSet consensus of $1.24. Fees and net interest income were better than expected, while expenses and provisioning were in line. While the bank beat quarterly estimates, there were no material changes to full-year guidance.

As we run the numbers, we have a hard time not seeing the bank beat its full-year revenue guidance of $78 billion-$79 billion. The bank remained on track with expenses, and we still think $54 billion is a reasonable full-year number.

Given that results largely met or exceeded our expectations for the quarter, particularly on a core-franchise basis, and that we are still not confident the current revenue growth trajectory is sustainable, we do not plan to make a material change to our current fair value estimate of $68. We view shares as undervalued, but caution investors that a lot of work remains for Citigroup in this turnaround effort. More insight into the 2024 expense outlook next quarter will be the next key update.

The bank is outperforming on revenue growth, particularly within the Institutional Clients Group segment, whose revenues were up 12% year over year and 2% sequentially in the quarter. Treasury and Trade Solutions and securities services are performing well, and while the personal banking unit has not grown as much, year-to-date growth of 8% is still solid, largely driven by the cards business.

At this pace, we expect the bank will meet its longer-term goal of 4%-5% annual revenue growth for 2023. We see growth at 5% or more for the core business. A key question is how sustainable such revenue growth is. The bank has seen a large increase in net interest income drive this year’s growth, and we’re not sure how much more of a boost is left there. So far the bank’s revenue plan is working, but we think Citi will need to prove itself all over again in 2024.

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The author or authors do not own shares in any securities mentioned in this article. Find out about Morningstar’s editorial policies.

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Eric Compton

Sector Director
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Eric Compton, CFA, is the director of equity research, technology, for Morningstar Research Services LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Morningstar, Inc. Before becoming technology sector director in late 2023, he was an equities strategist and covered the U.S. and Canadian banking sectors.

Before joining Morningstar in 2015, Compton was a business analyst for ESIS, a global provider of risk management products and a subsidiary of ACE Group.

Compton holds a bachelor's degree in applied health science from Wheaton College. He also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

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