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Non-Tech : Banks--- Betting on the recovery -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Road Walker who wrote (697)	3/12/2010 12:34:32 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1428

Are Citigroup Shares Ready for $5? By Laurie Kulikowski 03/12/10 - 07:00 AM EST NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Citigroup's(C) stock sprinted across the $4 finishline on Thursday, so now the question becomes: What will it take for the shares to break the $5 barrier? Judging by the recent running of the bulls, market sentiment for Citigroup is on a serious upswing as the company continues to make progress in re-working its balance sheet -- the latest development being a well-received sale of $2 billion worth of trust preferred securities that priced on Wednesday -- and its executives voice expectations for steady earnings improvement in its core businesses. >>Citigroup's Rollercoaster Ride: Slide Show Still, in order for investors to truly become comfortable with owning the stock for the long haul, two things need to happen: 1) The government needs to outline its plan for selling its 27% common equity stake and then execute it; and 2) The company needs to pull off a few profitable quarters while demonstrating credit costs are in decline. CEO Vikram Pandit, whose lunchtime keynote speech at a company-sponsored investor conference Thursday was able to give the stock the last bit of momentum it needed to finish above $4 for the first time since Dec. 7, believes that he's set the company to meet at least one of those goals. "Citigroup is well-positioned to return to sustained profitability," Pandit told the crowd at the Waldorf-Astoria. He also highlighted Citigroup's geographic diversity -- a talking point for him in the past -- indicating the company believes more than half of its potential revenue growth in the future could come from emerging markets. Those comments and Pandit's setting a future goal for a return on assets of between 1.25% and 1.5% vs. the return of 1.15% in 2009, and backing a view for a 5% compounded annual growth rate in assets, which stood at $1.38 trillion at year end, were the highlights of his appearance, and the stock spiked higher once his words began to hit the wire. The move in the stock of late has been impressive for a number of reasons. It's been a progressive push higher with shares gaining ground and achieving higher highs in each of the past four sessions. Volume escalated as well, leading to three straight sessions -- Tuesday through Thursday -- when more than 1 billion shares changed hands. Overall, the stock is now up 26% year-to-date through Thursday's close, and roughly 23% of that gain has come in the last four days. read more........ thestreet.com