Citigroup (C) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

In the latest trading session, Citigroup (C) closed at $65.04, marking a -0.7% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 1.32% gain on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.68%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.15%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the U.S. bank had lost 5.29% over the past month. This has lagged the Finance sector's loss of 3.63% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.61% in that time.

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 $1.87 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 9.66%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $17.26 billion, up 4.58% from the prior-year quarter.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $10.50 per share and revenue of $71.21 billion. These totals would mark changes of +115.16% and -4.16%, respectively, from last year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Citigroup should also be noted by investors. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.68% higher. Citigroup is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Digging into valuation, Citigroup currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 6.24. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 11.63, which means Citigroup is trading at a discount to the group.

It is also worth noting that C currently has a PEG ratio of 0.49. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The Banks - Major Regional was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.37 at yesterday's closing price.

The Banks - Major Regional industry is part of the Finance sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 110, putting it in the top 44% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. 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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