Tag Archives: Citigroup Inc

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Cash Dividend On The Way From Citigroup Non-Cumulative Preferred Stock, Series AA

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By DividendChannel.com

On 8/1/13, Citigroup Inc’s 8.125% Non-Cumulative Preferred Stock, Series AA (NYSE: C.PRP) will trade ex-dividend, for its quarterly dividend of $0.5078, payable on 8/15/13. As a percentage of C.PRP’s recent share price of $29.71, this dividend works out to approximately 1.71%, so look for shares of C.PRP to trade 1.71% lower ? all else being equal ? when C.PRP shares open for trading on 8/1/13. On an annualized basis, the current yield is approximately 6.83%, which compares to an average yield of 5.35% in the “Financial” preferred stock category, according to Preferred Stock Channel.
Click here to learn which S.A.F.E. dividend stocks also have preferred shares that should be on your radar screen » …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Markets

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

U.S. Banks Face Profit Lull as Mortgage Boom Slackens

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By Reuters

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Gene J. Puskar/AP

By Peter Rudegeair

Unexpectedly large quarterly profits at JPMorgan and Wells Fargo hide a more worrisome forecast for the rest of the year for many U.S. banks. Things could get worse before they get any better.

Wells Fargo’s (WFC) profit was buoyed in the second quarter by consumers rushing to refinance their mortgages and buy new homes, driven by record low interest rates and a recovering housing market. JPMorgan Chase’s (JPM) mortgage lending helped the bank for much of 2012, and second-quarter results this year were by some measures strong too — it made more loans, even if its pretax profits from lending fell 37 percent.

But mortgage lending is likely to be less of a support for banks going forward, as the U.S. Federal Reserve has started talking about tapering off its massive bond-buying program and borrowing rates for home loans have jumped. Thirty-year mortgage rates rose to 4.58 percent at the end of the second quarter, up 0.82 percentage point from the first quarter.

Executives from both banks, which between them make one in three U.S. home loans, said Friday that mortgage lending volumes would decline in the coming months and so profits from the business would fall. JPMorgan Chief Financial Officer Marianne Lake said rising mortgage rates could slash volume by 30 percent to 40 percent. That would result in a “dramatic reduction in profits” in the business, JPMorgan Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said.

At the same time economic growth has not ramped up enough for the rest of these banks’ businesses — such as small business loans and credit cards — to make up for the loss of that income. There may be a lull between the drop-off in mortgage lending and the boost to other forms of revenue from an improving economy and higher long-term interest rates.

“If the economy is getting stronger, it’s not manifesting itself in terms of balance sheet growth of the banks,” said Christopher Mutascio, a banking analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods. “Mortgage headwinds are a bit more instantaneous, and the pick-up in the other business lines may take some time.”

A more complete outlook for the banking industry will emerge next week when both Citigroup Inc and Bank of America report their earnings.

‘No Growth’ in The Mortgage Business

The looming problem isn’t lost on the banks and could lead to further cost cutting as they try to bridge the gap.

JPMorgan’s Lake said depending on market conditions the bank could accelerate its previously announced cost-cutting targets. In February, the largest U.S. bank had said it planned to cut 17,000 jobs by the end of 2014, or roughly 6.6 percent of its workforce. The job cuts were largely targeted at areas such as mortgage …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

American Express Profit Boosted by Higher Cardmember Spending

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By Reuters

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Credit card company American Express Co.’s quarterly revenue came in below analyst expectations as cardmember spending growth remained muted.

Cardmember spending in the first quarter increased 7 percent, adjusted for foreign currency translations. This was the fourth successive quarter of single-digit growth after nine quarters of double-digit growth.

Expense accounts have come under greater scrutiny as companies look to cut costs to protect profit margins, hurting the credit card lender, which gets more than a quarter of its U.S. billed business from affluent corporate customers.

However, American Express‘s billed business was up 6 percent at $224.5 billion and total cards in force crossed 100 million during the quarter.

The company has the lowest delinquency rate among the large credit card companies, including JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Discover Financial Services, Capital One Financial Corp. (COF), Bank of America Corp. (BAC) and Citigroup Inc. (C).

It set aside $497 million to cover future bad loans in the quarter, 21 percent more than it had provisioned last year, reflecting its larger lending portfolio.

American Express Co. (AXP), which lends directly to consumers and also competes with Visa Inc. (V) and MasterCard Inc. (MA) to process credit card transactions, said global network and merchant services revenue increased 4 percent to $1.3 billion.

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Consolidated expenses during the quarter remained in check, rising marginally, as the company looks to control costs and maintain a leaner operating structure.

The company said in January it would cut about 5,400 jobs as part of a global restructuring and took a related $600 million charge.

Profit for the quarter ended March 31 rose to $1.28 billion, or $1.15 a share, from $1.26 billion, or $1.07 a share, a year earlier.

Total revenue, net of interest expense, increased 4 percent to $7.88 billion.

Analysts on average had expected earnings of $1.12 a share on revenue of $8.03 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

American Express shares were marginally down in trading after the bell. They closed Wednesday at $64.13 on the New York Stock Exchange.

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From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/18/american-express-earnings/

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Citi Statement on Citigroup Bond Class Action Suit

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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Citi Statement on Citigroup Bond Class Action Suit

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Citigroup Inc. today announced it has agreed, subject to court approval, to settle a class action lawsuit brought on behalf of investors who purchased Citigroup debt and preferred stock during the period May 11, 2006, through November 28, 2008. Under the terms of the proposed settlement, Citi would pay a total of $730 million. Plaintiffs in the class action had contended, among other things, that they were misled by misstatements and omissions in the company’s disclosures during this period. Citigroup denies the allegations and is entering into this settlement solely to eliminate the uncertainties, burden and expense of further protracted litigation. The amount to be paid under the proposed settlement is covered by Citi’s existing litigation reserves.

The company released the following statement:

“This settlement is another significant step toward resolving our exposure to claims arising from the financial crisis, and we look forward to putting this matter behind us. Citi is a fundamentally different company today than at the beginning of the financial crisis. We have overhauled risk management and reduced risk exposures, while shedding assets and businesses that are not core to our strategy. We are completely focused on our clients and generating consistent, high-quality earnings.”

The proposed settlement will be reviewed by the Hon. Sidney Stein in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, where the class action is pending. Further information concerning the details of the settlement are available from the court’s docket, In Re Citigroup Inc. Bond Litigation, 08 Civ 9522 (SHS), or from plaintiffs’ lead counsel, Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP, www.blbglaw.com.

Citi, the leading global bank, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services, and wealth management.

Additional information may be found at www.citigroup.com | Twitter: @Citi | YouTube: www.youtube.com/citi | Blog: http://blog.citigroup.com/| Facebook: www.facebook.com/citi | LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/citi

Citigroup Inc.
Media:
Shannon Bell, 212-793-6206
or
Mark Costiglio, 212-559-4114
or
Investors:
Susan Kendall, 212-559-2718
or
Fixed Income Investors:
Peter Kapp, 212-559-5091

KEYWORDS:   United States  North America  New York

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

HSBC Could Lay Off Thousands

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By 24/7 Wall St.

Bank

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The restructuring of the financial services industry, which has ranged from 30,000 layoffs at Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) to cuts at Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) and Barclays PLC (NYSE: BCS), has reached multinational HSBC Holdings PLC (NYSE: HBC). According to the Financial Times:

Stuart Gulliver, HSBC‘s chief executive, said when he announced annual results last week that he would “fixate on costs” over the coming year and promised to find a further $1 billion of annual savings in 2013.

The job cuts target has still to be fixed but people close to the bank suggested up to 5,000 staff could go as part of the $1 billion savings plan. If HSBC maintained the recent rate of staff cuts to cost savings, the number would be closer to 10,000.

Shares of HSBC are down fractionally in premarket trading, to $54.40 in a 52-week range of $38.56 to $57.37.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Banking & Finance, Jobs Tagged: BAC, BCS, C, HBC

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

What's Important in the Financial World (3/18/2013)

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By 24/7 Wall St.

Tax

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HSBC Job Cuts

The restructuring of the financial services industry, which has ranged from 30,000 layoffs at Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) to cuts at Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) and Barclays PLC (NYSE: BCS), has reached multinational HSBC Holdings PLC (NYSE: HBC). According to the Financial Times:

Stuart Gulliver, HSBC‘s chief executive, said when he announced annual results last week that he would “fixate on costs” over the coming year and promised to find a further $1 billion of annual savings in 2013.

The job cuts target has still to be fixed but people close to the bank suggested up to 5,000 staff could go as part of the $1 billion savings plan. If HSBC maintained the recent rate of staff cuts to cost savings, the number would be closer to 10,000.

Chinese Home Prices

One of the most substantial concerns about the Chinese economy is that inflation in securities, food prices and real estate could create bubbles. The central government has hoped to keep this under control with mortgage rules. Recent data show that has not worked. Bloomberg reports:

China‘s new home prices posted the broadest advance since December 2011, a test for new Premier Li Keqiang as he seeks to prevent a bubble without damping economic growth.

Prices climbed in 62 cities of the 70 the government tracks in February from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said today. Beijing prices jumped 5.9 percent from a year earlier, the biggest since February 2011, while they advanced 8.1 percent in Guangzhou, the most since January 2011.

Brand new efforts to cool the market go into effect this month. However, they may be no more effective than the slew of such efforts instituted in the past.

Pay-TV Shake Up

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) wants to turn the model for payment to creators of premium content on its head. Its proposal is to pay based on the audience that shows and movies produce. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Verizon Communications Inc. is proposing to shake up the pay-television business based on a simple premise: it wants to tie the fees it pays to carry TV channels to how many people actually watch them.

Verizon, whose FiOS TV is the nation’s sixth-biggest pay-TV provider, with 4.7 million subscribers, has begun talks with several “midtier and smaller” media companies about paying for their channels based on audience size, according to Terry Denson, the phone company’s chief programming negotiator. He declined to identify any of the media companies.

Under existing arrangements, distributors like cable and satellite operators pay a monthly, per-subscriber fee to carry channels based on the number of homes in which they agree to make the channels available, regardless of how many people watch those channels.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Market Open Tagged: BAC, BCS, C, HBC, VZ

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Fed Stress Test Trips Up Some Big Banks' Plans

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By 24/7 Wall St.

Bank of America

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The annual stress tests on the biggest U.S. banks produced a few surprises when the results were announced last night. The capital plans submitted by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS), BB&T Corp. (NYSE: BBT) and Ally Financial were rejected. That means that shareholders are unlikely to receive larger dividends or benefit from increased share buybacks from these banks.

Among the banks getting approval for their capital plans were Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) and Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC). American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) received approval to pare back its stock repurchase plan.

J.P. Morgan already had received approval to repurchase $6 billion in stock and boost its quarterly dividend from $0.30 to $0.38 a share, but the bank’s CEO warned that it may have to cut its plans after it prepares a new capital plan at the end of the third quarter. Goldman will also submit a new plan at the same time.

Bank of America plans to repurchase up to $5 billion in common stock and $5.5 billion in preferred stock. The bank’s quarterly dividend of $0.01 will not change.

Citigroup plans to buy back $1.2 billion in common stock through the end of the first quarter of next year and plans no change to its $0.01 quarterly dividend.

Shares of J.P. Morgan are trading down about 2% in the premarket this morning, at $50.06 in a 52-week range of $30.83 to $51.00.

Goldman’s shares are trading down about 1.6%, at $151.62 in a 52-week range of $90.43 to $159.00.

Bank of America is trading up 3.7% at $12.56, a 52-week high, in a current range of $6.72 to $12.44.

Citigroup is trading up fractionally at $47.50 in a range of $24.61 to $47.92.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Banking & Finance, Regulation Tagged: AXP, BAC, BBT, C, GS, JPM

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Media Digest (3/14/2013) Reuters, WSJ, NYT, FT, Bloomberg

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By 24/7 Wall St.

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The head of marketing at Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) criticizes Google Inc.’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android software and its largest adopter, Samsung. (Reuters)

Citadel will sell the shares it still has in E*Trade (NASDAQ: ETFC). (WSJ)

Competition hurts China Mobile Ltd.’s (NYSE: CHL) earnings. (WSJ)

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) cuts the price of its Kindle Fire HD tablet. (WSJ)

As U.S. retail sales rose last month, consumers saved less. (WSJ)

The head of the Google Android business will move to another job and the head of Chrome operations will take over. (WSJ)

Renault will produce more cars in France, and in exchange, unions will accept pay freezes. (WSJ)

Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF), Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) and Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) agree to new employee clawback provisions after pressure from New York State. (WSJ)

Early tests of the batteries on the Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) 787 Dreamliner are not set to predict future problems. (NYT)

A Solar Energy Industries Association study shows rapid growth of solar adoption in the United States. (NYT)

President Obama says he will increase pressure about cyberattacks that originate in China. (FT)

Germany says it will reject stimulus in favor of budget cuts. (FT)

Finance ministers at a European Union summit likely will ask to lessen budget demands on many weak nations. (Bloomberg)

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Press Digest Tagged: AAPL, AMZN, BA, C, CHL, COF, ETFC, GOOG, WFC

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Automobiles

Report: Treasury sold off $489M of GM stock in February

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By Zach Bowman

General Motors' Renaissance Center headquarters with trees

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The Detroit News reports that the US Treasury sold off around 17.2 million shares of General Motors stock in February worth $489 million. The move is part of a plan to rid the government of GM stock by March, 2014. All told, the government has regained $29.8 billion of the $49.5 billion it took to bail out GM in 2008 and 2009. The feds sold off nearly half the country’s stake in the automaker when the company went public in 2010, and now taxpayers own around 19 percent of the manufacturer. Moving forward, the Treasury will disclose how many shares it has sold each financial quarter.

Earlier this year, the government named Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. to manage the sale of GM stock. The duo will receive around $3 million for handling the sale, though the government has opted to keep its trading plan under wraps to keep hedge funds from taking advantage of the situation. The plan does place limits on exactly how much stock can be sold at any given time, however. Six smaller brokerages will handle the sale of the Treasury’s GM common stock.

Treasury sold off $489M of GM stock in February originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 12 Mar 2013 16:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Autoblog

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Bank Stress Tests Countdown Begins, Dividends &amp; Buyback Approvals Await

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By 24/7 Wall St.

bank vault

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We are now within ten days of the release of the Federal Reserve‘s new round of stress tests on how the nation’s largest banks will do if (or when) the economy goes back into a downturn. The good news is that most banks are expected to pass the tests. Of the questionable ones, they are still not expected to face any added regulatory pressure.

There is a good-news bad-news argument here. Dow Jones showed a decision by the Federal Reserve that will make the stress tests released on next Thursday. The Fed’s formal decision on which banks will be freed up to increase returning capital to shareholders via higher dividends and buybacks will not be for another week.

Read Also: The 7 Safest Banks in America for 2013

The too-big-to-fail banks like Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) and Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) remain as “challenged” or “problem” banks but how they will do in the stress test remains up for debate. That being said, we cannot go out on a limb and assure readers that the Federal Reserve will allow either one of these banks to increase dividends and share buybacks. The reality is that they are likely in a fine spot to do so, but reality and regulation have not normalized between each other yet.

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) has a yield of only about 0.4% and Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) yields only 0.1%. Our take remains the same as before that BofA may get to increase its payout before Citi. Still, that is opinion rather than fact. There are still many pending legal cases against BofA from borrowers and from various government agencies and trading partners. If these banks are not allowed to lift their dividends this year, then we would almost certainly expect that to take place in 2014.

We do expect that J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) will be allowed to increase their dividends and buybacks again now that the dust settled after the London Whale losses have been realized. Due to J.P. Morgan’s fortress balance sheet, even the strictest of regulators probably understands that this was a line-item now that did not really jeopardize taxpayers, depositors, and trading partners. Things are strong enough at Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) that they already jumped the gun and raised their dividend early this year.

Here are some other banks which may have a shot at dividend hikes or resuming some share repurchase programs:

Regions Financial Corp. (NYSE: RF) has a $11.2 billion market cap and only a 0.5% dividend yield. We went back and saw that Regions cut the payout from $0.38 to $0.10 in 2008 and then in 2009 it cut that payout from $0.10 all the way down to only $0.01 per share per quarter.

SunTrust Banks, Inc. (NYSE: STI) has a $14.99 billion market cap and only a 0.7% common stock dividend yield. This bank raised its payout to …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Bank Lending: Part of the Problem or Part of the Solution?

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By 24/7 Wall St.

Bank

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The conventional wisdom says that low interest rates encourage banks to lend more because more borrowers come knocking on the door. So why, when the Fed funds rate is as close to zero as it is ever likely to be, has bank lending declined?

A new working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) offers some data to try to answer that question. Titled “Banks Exposure to Interest Rate Risk and The Transmission of Monetary Policy,” the NBER report indicates that the country’s largest banks have reduced their outstanding loans, most likely for the very good reason that lending money at very low interest rates is not profitable.

The big banks largest customers — U.S. companies — have gone to the bond markets for needed financing and have taken advantage of the low interest rates without help from the banks.

Smaller banks have behaved in a more traditional way and have increased their lending. Lending at Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) fell from $604 billion in 2011 to $601 billion in 2012. At Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) lending fell 2% in 2012, to $912 billion, according to a report in Fortune. At Apple Bank of Savings, however, the 100th largest bank in the United States, lending rose 58% in 2012.

One thing cheap money has accomplished is to boost equity prices, and today’s highest-ever Dow level is testimony to that. When interest rates begin to rise again, then the big banks will resume lending and equity prices may pull back. But we are likely to have to wait at least another year to see if that happens.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Banking & Finance, Economy, Research Tagged: BAC, C

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Banks Hopeful for Dividend Hikes and Stocks Buybacks

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By 24/7 Wall St.

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In the coming weeks, the financial sector may move from worrying about the spending sequestration to the coming stress tests of the 19 major banks in the United States. We recently covered the Seven Safest Banks in America for 2013 and that list may get to be expanded handily in 2014 after the result of the stress tests.

At issue is that the banks are expected to pass these tests. If so, there is going to be one serious advantage that has not been there in years. That will come from returning capital to the shareholders. Companies like Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) and Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) have such low dividend yields that they might as well not be counted as dividend payers at all. Some of the banks likely will be freed up to begin returning capital via higher dividends and common stock buybacks.

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) has a yield of only 0.36% and Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) yields only 0.1%. Our take is that Bank of America may get to increase its payout before Citigroup, but that may be solely due to management remaining the same. There are still many pending legal cases against Bank of America from borrowers and from various government agencies and trading partners. If these banks are not allowed to lift their dividends this year, then we almost certainly would expect that to take place in 2014.

Here are some other banks that may have a shot at dividend hikes or resuming some share repurchase programs:

  • Regions Financial Corp. (NYSE: RF) has a $10.8 billion market cap and only a 0.52% dividend yield. Regions cut the payout from $0.38 to $0.10 in 2008, and then in 2009 it cut that payout from $0.10 all the way down to only $0.01 per share per quarter.
  • SunTrust Banks Inc. (NYSE: STI) has a $14.7 billion market cap and only a 0.72% dividend yield. This bank raised its payout to $0.05 per share quarter from $0.01 in mid-2011, but that has been static ever since at the one-penny level.
  • Zions Bancorp. (NASDAQ: ZION) has a $4.4 billion market cap and only a 0.17% dividend yield. This dividend fell from $0.43 to $0.32 per share per quarter very briefly in 2008 and then down to $0.04 for two quarters before the dividend fell down to $0.01 per share quarter, where it has been since mid-2009.

The good news is that most banks are expected to pass the stress tests. The bad news is that merely passing a stress test does not come with assurances that the Federal Reserve will allow these banks to automatically hike dividends and begin repurchasing common stock.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Banking & Finance, Corporate Governance, Dividends & Buybacks, Regulation Tagged: BAC, C, RF, STI, ZION

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Citigroup faced SEC questions over its value on brokerage

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A man walks past a Citibank branch in lower Manhattan, New York

NEW YORK (Reuters) – At the same time that Citigroup Inc was unsuccessfully trying to convince an arbitrator that the brokerage it owned with Morgan Stanley was worth as much as $23 billion, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in August was asking Citigroup to document the valuation it had placed on the asset. The request was made public on Friday when the agency posted written responses from Citigroup to questions from SEC staff about the bank's financial disclosures. …

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Yahoo Business

Science & Technology

Citigroup Predicts Parting Clouds for Battered Solar Stocks (C, SPWR, WFR, FSLR, AEIS, TSL, YGE, STP)

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By 24/7 Wall St.

Alternative Energy sources

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The never-ending quest to produce energy from something other than fossil fuels has provided Wall St. firms and investors the challenge of constantly trying to determine which companies are legitimate. After years of boom and bust cycles, the solar sector has finally purged some of the industry excess and may be poised to become relevant again. That is the take of Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) in a fresh research call. The proverbial Wall St. question will emerge, “Is it different this time?”

Citigroup is launching an ambitious global solar sector research team that will have analysts in the United States, Europe and Asia. While the near-term picture for the industry and the sector remains price driven and very volatile, in the longer term the analysts see every reason to remain positive. The sector will continue to exhibit growth, driven by underlying economics and fuel diversity, with legislatively driven spending still present but taking more of a back seat.

The solar research team at Citigroup started four solar stocks with Buy ratings, two at Neutral and one with a dubious Sell rating. We are seeing real gains on this on the select names. The stocks started with Buy ratings are:

Sunpower Corp. (NASDAQ: SPWR) is not only their top-rated stock but it is added to the U.S. High Conviction Buy list (top picks live). The target price is $12, though the consensus Wall St. estimate is only $5.50, which is less than current trading levels. Sunpower is up almost 5% today at $8.40.

MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. (NYSE: WFR), a former high flyer, has a price target at Citigroup of $5.40. The consensus estimate is at $4.00. Surprisingly, this battered solar (and chip) wafer-maker is up only 1%.

First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) is yet another former high flying solar stock, and the Citigroup price target is $41, while the Thomson/First call estimate is at $24.00. Shares are up more than 4% and back above $30 so far.

Advanced Energy Industries Inc. (NASDAQ: AEIS) was given a price target of $20, and that is substantially higher than the consensus of $13.50. This one is up almost 4.5% at $16.60 on the news.

Citigroup rates Trina Solar Ltd. (NYSE: TSL) and Yingli Green Energy Holding Co. Ltd (NYSE: YGE) at Neutral.

Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd. (NYSE: STP) was initiated with the Sell rating. Its shares are getting hit with a drop of more than 3% to $1.53 so far today.

One of the main thesis points for the Citigroup team is that while solar may have reached socket parity in many global regions at the residential level (socket parity refers to solar panels offering cheaper electricity than power from the grid), utility scale parity is expected to advance over the next few years. Besides pure economics, the need for utilities to diversify their fuel mix is crucial to insulating them from volatility and the likely upward movement in gas prices over the longer term, a need that was well-documented as they surveyed …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

The Long Awaited Turnaround at Ericsson Appears to Be Underway (ERIC, GS, CS, C, DB, STM, NOK, ALU)

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By 24/7 Wall St.

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global network conceptWhen you are an industry leader and one of the largest companies in the country of Sweden, employing more than 100,000 workers, it seems almost impossible that a turnaround would ever be necessary. However, it is not uncommon for large corporations to stray from the path that brought them their greatest success. For telecommunications equipment giant Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC), the path back to success may be one that got them there in the first place.

Posting extremely strong fourth-quarter numbers that were driven by high demand for networking equipment in the U.S. market, Ericsson blew by the Wall St. expectations. Sales for the quarter were 66.9 billion SEK, up 23% sequentially and up 5% from the year-ago quarter. Network equipment sales were up 6% from a year ago, driven mainly by North America, while network sales were up 31% sequentially due to normal year-end seasonality. The results translate to $10.5 billion in U.S. currency, which is well ahead of the consensus estimate of $9.5 billion.

CEO Hans Vestberg said in a statement:

Segments showed mixed developments during the year with strong growth in Global Services and Support Solutions, while Networks had a more challenging year. Support Solutions went from losses in 2011 into profitability and together with Global Services represented close to 50% of Group sales in 2012, compared to 42% in 2011.

Vestberg also said that North America was the company’s strongest market throughout 2012 and was driven by continued mobile broadband investments and demand for services. What is so impressive about things of late is that Ericsson has much exposure to Europe, the most troubled spot in the developed world for investors weighing risk these days.

Wall St. analysts embraced the earnings rebound and responded with a flurry of upgrades. On February 1, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) upgraded the stock from Neutral to the prized Conviction Buy List. Credit Suisse Group (NYSE: CS) moved its rating to Neutral from Underperform on the same day. Canaccord Genuity and Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) both raised their price targets on the first, following Deutsche Bank A.G. (NYSE: DB) raising the stock to Buy from Hold on January 29. The current consensus price target for the stock is $11.50. Given the recent upgrades, that may soon be lifted.

One very positive development for the company may be a departure from its money-losing joint venture with STMicroelectronics N.V. (NYSE: STM), the largest European semiconductor company. While it recognized a large charge for its participation, an expected third-quarter 2013 exit will let the company focus on the profitable core businesses.

The Ericsson turnaround may start to get investors looking at two other formerly dominate European companies fighting to regain lost glory. Both Finnish phone giant Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) and French telecommunications equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent S.A. (NYSE: ALU) are trading under $5. Despite industry problems and a loss of market share for both companies, the low stock prices alone could make one or both of them takeover targets if a bottom-fishing turnaround or asset buyer surfaces.

For Ericsson the strength in North America may continue to provide a strong tailwind. With smartphone and tablet sales booming and an ever increasing demand for broadband consuming content, it may be in the right place at the right time to complete its turnaround. Wall St. analysts have at least become very vocal with a wave of upgrades in the Ericsson turnaround story.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Technology, Technology Companies, Telecom, Telecom & Wireless, Turnarounds, Value Investing Tagged: ALU, C, CS, DB, ERIC, GS, NOK, STM

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

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Morgan Stanley to Spend Over $500 Million on Brokerage Technology – Memo

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Following a strong fourth quarter from its wealth-management unit, Morgan Stanley (MS) plans to spend more than $500 million over the next 18 months to improve computer systems for the 16,780 financial advisers and support staff who work in its brokerage joint venture with Citigroup Inc. (C).
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox Business Headlines