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Citigroup (C) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, Citigroup (C - Free Report) closed at $41.08, marking a +0.15% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 1.1% gain on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.54%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 1.59%.

Coming into today, shares of the U.S. bank had lost 12.89% in the past month. In that same time, the Finance sector lost 4.44%, while the S&P 500 lost 3.13%.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Citigroup as it approaches its next earnings report date. In that report, analysts expect Citigroup to post earnings of $1.30 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 13.33%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $19.34 billion, up 4.49% from the year-ago period.

C's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $6.07 per share and revenue of $79.12 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of -14.63% and +5.01%, respectively.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Citigroup should also be noted by investors. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.03% lower within the past month. Citigroup currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Digging into valuation, Citigroup currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 6.76. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 8.53, so we one might conclude that Citigroup is trading at a discount comparatively.

We can also see that C currently has a PEG ratio of 1.52. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. The Banks - Major Regional industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.45 as of yesterday's close.

The Banks - Major Regional industry is part of the Finance sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 200, putting it in the bottom 21% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.


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