Citigroup (C) was jumping nearly 4.5% in morning trading Monday after its better-than-expected first-quarter earnings report.
For the quarter, Citi said it earned $3.94 billion, or an adjusted $1.30 a share, 15 cents ahead of analysts' average estimates. Revenue slipped 0.6% to $20.12 billion, but that was also ahead of the $19.46 billion consensus.
The quarter's upbeat results are of course a welcome respite for Citigroup, which has been hurt in recent weeks by the Federal Reserve's rejection of its capital plan, a government investigation into possible fraud in its Mexico operations, and downgrades from analysts.
Although fixed-income trading revenue fell 18% year-over-year to $3.85 billion, it is a volatile business, and Citi's slide is less than the 21% suffered by JPMorgan (JPM), which reported disappointing first-quarter results last week.
Lower mortgage originations, which were less than a third of year-ago levels, also dragged on the quarter, as with other banking peers, as with peers. Consumer banking as a whole dipped 4.6% to $929 billion.
The firm reduced its deferred tax asset—which stem from debts incurred during the financial crisis–by $1.1 billion, which Citi highlighted noted was more than any other quarter since recession. Expenses also fell 1%.
Analysts reactions are just starting to trickle in: S&P Capital IQ's Erik Oja reiterated a Hold rating on the stock and lowered his price target by $4 to $52, noting that while Citi's EPS were ahead of the consensus, they fell a penny shy of his own estimates. "Our caution is based on our view of continuing poor results in C’s Global Consumer Banking, 50% of Citicorp’s Q1 revenues, down 4.6% as all global regions post declines."
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