Citigroup beats quarterly profit and sales forecasts but shares dip

Profits and revenues at Citigroup rose by more than expected in the fourth quarter of 2015.

Excluding accounting adjustments linked to valuations for debts and credit revenues rose 4% versus a year ago to $18.6bn, driving a gain in earnings per share to $1.06.

The latter was far above last year's mere 6 cents per share and just ahead of the $1.05 which analysts had been expecting.

Michael Corbat, chief executive officer of Citigroup, said, “Overall, we had strong performance during 2015. The $17.1 billion we generated in net income was the highest since 2006, when our company was very different in terms of headcount, footprint, mix of businesses and assets."

Charges for CVA/DVA hit -$181m or -$141m on an after tax basis.

Including those charges quarterly net profits reached $3.3bn, compared to $344m in 2014.

Corbat emphasised how over the last three years Citi had improved its returns on both assets and tangible common equity and improved the efficiency ratio at its Citicorp unit.

For all of 2015 revenues at Citi declined by 2% to $76.1bn, excluding CVA/DVA, while net income excluding CVA/DVA and the impact of a mortgage settlement jumped 49% to $17.1bn.

As of 13:18GMT shares in the global banking giant were down 2.27% to $44.35.