Citigroup (C) reported first-quarter earnings on Friday. Earnings and revenue beat analysts’ consensus expectations, sending the company’s stock price up 1% in premarket trading.
The bank reported earnings per share of $1.58, beating the consensus estimate of $1.22, and revenue for the quarter was $21.1 billion, beating the consensus estimate of $20.39 billion.
According to reporting data, revenue decreased by 2% compared to the same period of the previous year.
However, excluding the $1 billion impact related to asset sales, primarily gains from the sale of its consumer business in India in the previous year, revenues grew 3% year over year. The increase was driven by growth in Citi’s Banking, Personal Banking (USPB) and Services businesses, partially offset by declines in Markets and Wealth.
“Last month marked the end of the organizational simplification we announced in September. The result is a cleaner, simpler management structure that fully aligns with and facilitates our strategy. It will also help us deliver on our transformation, where we have made good progress as we move away from multiple legacy platforms, streamline end-to-end processes and strengthen our risk and controls environment,” said Citi CEO Jane Fraser.
Fraser noted that services continue to perform well and generate very attractive returns, while the banking sector recovery has accelerated and Wealth fees have risen, generating more than $22 billion in net new assets over the past 12 months. In personal banking in the US, Citi sees momentum in both the card business and strong participation in our digital payments offerings.