1. Company
Citigroup ( C ) is a multinational financial services company which has been in operation for over 200 years. It is the third largest bank holding company in the U.S. by assets and its largest shareholders include funds from the Middle East and Singapore. The firm has one of the largest financial services networks in the world in a 140 country with 16,000 offices through the world. Citi holds over 200 million customer accounts and is a primary broker for the U.S. Treasury Department. The firm suffered heavy losses during the financial crisis which led the government to bail it out to the tune of $25 billion and guarantee $300 billion in the firm's assets. Despite these losses and bailouts which gave the government a 37% equity interest, it still built up enormous cash reserves of $420 billion in surplus liquid cash and government securities as of 2012.
Market Cap:
1.2 History
1998 Merger
Citigroup was came about at of the merger between Citicorp and Travelers Group. The structure of the merger was that of a stock swap, with Travelers Group purchasing the entirety of Citicorp shares for $70 billion, and issuing 2.5 million new Citigroup shares for each Citicorp share. When the merger was completed the new company was the largest financial institution at $140 billion with $700 billion in assets.
2000 Acquisitions:
- Associates First Capital Corporation (Agreed to pay victims of predatory lending practices $240 million)
- European American Bank - $1.9 billion
- Banamex - $12.5 billion
2008 Financial Crisis and Beyond
The firms heavy exposure to troubled mortgages in the form of collateralized debt obligation (CDOs), compound by the firms very poor risk management or lack of risk management. This exposure and lack of risk management left the firm insolvent, despite its receipt of $25 billion in the Trouble Asset Relief Program Fund. As a result of its become insolvent the Citi and Federal regulators approved a plan to stablilize the company. On November 24, 2008 the government announced a massive plan to save the company which called for the government to back $306 billion in loans and securities and directly invest $20 billion in the firm. Multiple government agencies would cover up to 90% of losses on its $335 billion portfolio after Citi absorbed the first $25 billion in losses. In return the Citi gave the government $27 billion in preferred shares and warrents to acquire stock. In January of 2009, the firm announced that it plan to reorganize itself into two operating units: Citicorp for its retail operations and institutional client business and Citi Holding for its brokerage and asset management. Citigroup will continue to operates as one company. Citi achieved its first profitable year since 2007 in 2010 and it reported $10.7 billion in net profits, compared to its loss of $1.9 billion in 2009. In late 2010, the government sold its remaining shares for a $12 billion profit.
On March 2012, Federal Reserve reported Citi was one of the four financial institutions out of 19 major banks to fail the stress test. According to the company and the Fed it failed the stress test because of its high return capital plan and its international loans. Again in 2014 the firm failed the stress test. According to the Fed it fail Citi on qualitative concerns that was left unresolved despite regulatory warning.
2. Corporate Managment
The company is linking pay to performance for all top executives at the firm. Which is a great move the better the company performance the more management will make. For 2013 CEO Mike Corbat received $14 million in compenation. Mr. Corbat has proven since he took the ranks in 2012, to be very well equip for the job. He has a long history in banking and before he took over as CEO he ran the firms European Operations.
3. Finances
Balance Sheet
Total Current Liabilities
-
-
-
-
Total Liabilities
1676043
1675611
1696072
1750434
Total Equity
204339
189049
177806
163468
Total Liabilities & Shareholders' Equity
1880382
1864660
1873878
1913902
Total Common Shares Outstanding
3029.24
3028.88
2923.88
2905.84
Total Preferred Shares Outstanding
-
-
0.01
0.01
Income Statements
Loan Loss Provision
7604
10458
11336
25809
Net Interest Income After Loan Loss Provision
39189
36228
36313
27730
Non-Interest Income, Bank
30108
27429
29682
32237
Non-Interest Expense, Bank
-49800
-55832
-51273
-46851
Net Income Before Taxes
19497
7825
14722
13116
Provision for Income Taxes
5867
7
3575
2217
Net Income After Taxes
13630
7818
11147
10899
Minority Interest
-227
-219
-148
-281
Equity In Affiliates
-
-
-
-
U.S GAAP Adjustment
-
-
-
-
Net Income Before Extraordinary Items
13403
7599
10999
10618
Total Extraordinary Items
270
-58
68
-16
Net Income
13673
7541
11067
10602
Total Adjustments to Net Income
-457
-192
-212
-99
Income Available to Common Excluding Extraordinary Items
12946
7407
10787
10519
Dilution Adjustment
1
11
17
2
Diluted Net Income
13217
7360
10872
10505
Diluted Weighted Average Shares
3041.6
3015.5
2998.8
2967.8
Diluted EPS Excluding Extraordinary Items
4.26
2.46
3.6
3.55
DPS - Common Stock Primary Issue
0.04
0.04
0.02
-
Diluted Normalized EPS
4.38
4.11
4.17
3.55
For fiscal year 2013, the firms interest income decreased 6% to $62.97 billion and net interest income after loans loss provision increased 8% to $39.19 billion. Earned $13.7 billion which was the firms largest profit since the financial crisis and it grew its loan portfolio by 6%. The firm generated $20 billion in regulatory capital, ending the year with a Tier 1 Common ratio of 10.6%.
Financial Assets and Liquidity
4. Risk
Citi receives the bulk of its profits and earnings from international market. Which has the potential if these countries go through a major economic crisis or a potical crisis then Citi will suffer massive losses or worse.
5.Valuation
Citi today sells for 11x its earnings 2.5x its free cash flow and 0.7x its book value which so that Citi is trading at lower multiples then the other big four banks in the United States. If Citi sold at the same P/E as Wells Fargo then it would sell for $60.90 per share and if it sold the same P/E as JP Morgan then it would sell for $55.25 per share. Today the firm sells for about 8.2x its pretax earnings. If Citi sold at 9x to 10x its pretax earnings then it would sell for $57.69 to $64.10 per share. From todays price to $59.19 per share is should be anyone's buying range, let me be clear I use pretax earnings most of the time to see how much I am willing to pay up for a company. I believe pay 9x to 10x a company's pretax earnings is reasonable way to to see what the fair value of a company. Now lets look at Citis free cash flow per share of $18.87 per share and it currently trades at 2.5x it free cash flow, but if it traded at Wells Fargo free cash flow multiple of 4.6x then it would sell for $86.80 per share. Based on the Firms earnings, book value, free cash flow and selling at lower multiples across the board compared to the other Big Four Institutions, I would buy the stock at today prices. It is very clear that Citi is undervalued and the share price could easily double from where it is at now.
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.