C's Business Overhaul Progresses Well: Is This Convincing Investors?
In January 2024, the bank announced plans to cut 20,000 jobs, approximately 8% of its global staff, by 2026. So far, the bank has made significant progress, reducing its headcount by 10,000 employees.
Also, Citigroup has been focusing on growth in its core businesses by streamlining its international operations. In April 2021, C announced plans to exit the consumer banking business in 14 markets across Asia and EMEA. The freed-up capital is likely to be reallocated to higher-return segments like wealth management and investment banking.
In sync with this, last month, Citigroup, through its subsidiary Citibank Europe Plc, announced that Citi Handlowy agreed to sell its consumer banking business in Poland. The company has already successfully exited consumer banking businesses in nine countries — Australia, Bahrain, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
As part of its strategy, Citigroup continues to make progress with the wind-downs of its Korea consumer banking operations and its overall operations in Russia. It is also preparing for an initial public offering of its consumer banking and small business, and middle-market banking operations in Mexico.
Through such initiatives, the company expects revenues to see a compounded annual growth rate of 4-5% by 2026-end and will further drive $2-2.5 billion of annualized run rate savings. Management expects the return on tangible common equity to be 10-11% by 2026.
Key Competitors Challenging Citigroup
Wells Fargo WFC is making efforts to strengthen its operations. While the bank is reducing headcount and streamlining processes, it is investing in its branch network and upgrading digital tools to augment the customer experience. As part of its attempts to improve the branch experience, Wells Fargo is investing more in branch staff and upgrading technology. This allows it to maintain a focus on cost management while enhancing customer service and accessibility. With such strategic efforts, Wells Fargo expects $2.4 billion of gross expense reductions in 2025, driven by efficiency initiatives.
Bank of America BAC continues to strengthen its operations by aligning its banking centers according to customer needs. The bank has embarked on an ambitious expansion plan to open financial centers in new and existing markets. By 2027, Bank of America plans to expand its financial center network by opening more than 150 centers. It also remains committed to providing modern and state-of-the-art financial centers through its ongoing renovation and modernization project. These initiatives will enable Bank of America to improve its digital offerings and cross-sell several products, including mortgages, auto loans and credit cards.
C's Price Performance, Valuation & Estimates
Shares of Citigroup have gained 10.4% year to date compared with the industry 's growth of 9.6%. Meanwhile, BAC shares have gained 2.2% and WFC has risen 8.8% in the same time frame.
Price Performance
From a valuation standpoint, C trades at a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 9.42X, below the industry's average of 13.70X.
Price-to-Earnings F12M
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for C's 2025 and 2026 earnings implies a year-over-year rise of 23% and 25.9%, respectively. The estimates for 2025 and 2026 have been revised upward over the past 30 days.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Citigroup currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
5 Stocks Set to Double
Each was handpicked by a Zacks expert as the #1 favorite stock to gain +100% or more in 2024. While not all picks can be winners, previous recommendations have soared +143.0%, +175.9%, +498.3% and +673.0%.
Most of the stocks in this report are flying under Wall Street radar, which provides a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor.
Today, See These 5 Potential Home Runs >>
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
Bank of America Corporation (BAC): Free Stock Analysis Report
Wells Fargo & Company (WFC): Free Stock Analysis Report
Citigroup Inc. (C): Free Stock Analysis Report
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Toronto Star
16 hours ago
- Toronto Star
Hapbee Secures Strategic Backing and Commercial Agreement to Enter Multi-Billion Dollar Asian Wellness Market
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 18, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Hapbee Technologies Inc. ('Hapbee' or the 'Company') (TSXV: HAPB | OTCQB: HAPBF | FWB: HA1) today announced that Smile Group, a prominent Asia‑based venture builder and growth partner, has made a strategic investment in Hapbee and entered into a commercial agreement to launch Hapbee's digital wellness platform across Asia. The partnership will initially focus on Singapore and India, two rapidly growing wellness markets, with expansion planned into other regions of Asia.
CTV News
18 hours ago
- CTV News
Foxconn's Apple era fades as AI servers drive growth in Taiwan tech sector
TAIPEI — Taiwan's Foxconn, which rose to become a global tech manufacturing juggernaut by assembling millions of iPhones, can now say its main business is no longer Apple as it takes advantage of the AI-boom to diversify its income. Its revenue from making AI servers and other cloud and networking products, including for major customer Nvidia, surpassed smart consumer products such as iPhones for the first time in the second quarter, marking the culmination of a shift that began years ago and has swept through Taiwan's tech industry. Foxconn's heavy reliance on the smartphone business has long been viewed by investors as a significant risk, as demand growth for new iPhones has gradually weakened since they were first introduced nearly two decades ago, leaving the top iPhone assembler grappling with slowing sales momentum, analysts said. Wary of the risk, Foxconn Chairman Young Liu has been championing new businesses such as AI servers, electric vehicles and semiconductors since taking the top job in 2019. While its expansion into EVs and chips has yet to show a meaningful contribution to its topline, Foxconn's success in AI server manufacturing - the company is Nvidia's biggest server maker - is the result of its early bets before the technology was thrust into the limelight with the advent of ChatGPT in late 2022. Consumer electronics accounted for 35 per cent of Foxconn's total revenue in the second quarter, while cloud and networking business represented 41 per cent. In 2021, consumer electronics represented 54 per cent of its revenue. The firm's prudent wagers years back helped it cultivate a now-prized relationship with the U.S. AI chip firm and other major AI players, analysts said. 'The company has been in the business for years, meeting higher quality requirements, diversifying assembly and operations across sites, and pursuing vertical integration,' said Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst at TF International Securities. Foxconn began producing reference designs for Nvidia's graphics cards around 2002 and started making general-purpose servers for cloud service providers' data centers as early as around 2009. Its AI server business with Nvidia is in many ways the culmination of that history, analysts said. Foxconn says it is now one of the world's largest suppliers of both general-purpose and AI servers, with a market share of nearly 40 per cent in each. The company has also shown a willingness to commit investment to a project at an earlier stage than other companies, Kuo said, citing its past investments for Apple and similar moves for Nvidia. 'In long-term partnerships, Foxconn is more willing to take the initiative,' he said. Foxconn's plan to build factories in Houston, Texas — part of Nvidia's $500 billion U.S. investment plan — and in Mexico to produce AI servers for the U.S. client underscores this strategy, analysts said. Foxconn now expects its AI server revenue would grow more than 170 per cent in the third quarter year-on-year. Foxconn and Nvidia declined to comment. Apple did not respond to request for comment. Broader shift The shift at Foxconn mirrors a broader trend in Taiwan's technology sector, where companies once centered on consumer electronics — such as Foxconn with iPhones, and Quanta Computer and Wistron Corp with notebooks — are now investing heavily in AI servers. Nvidia partner Wistron's revenue for January to July rose 92.7 per cent, while Quanta's grew 65.6 per cent in the same period. 'The monthly sales jump for Taiwan ODMs in the first half of 2025 is evidence of this trend,' said Robert Cheng, head of Asia technology hardware research at BofA Global Research, referring to original design manufacturers like Foxconn that contract manufacture products for their clients. Their fast transition into AI servers is also the result of Taiwanese tech supply chain working closely with U.S. tech giants on data center infrastructure work for a decade now, according to Chris Wei, industry consultant at Taiwan's Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute. He estimates Taiwan accounts for about 80 per cent of global server shipments and more than 90 per cent of AI servers. Cheng agrees. 'We think this shift toward AI servers, whatever form it takes, is good for Taiwan's tech industry,' he said, noting Taiwanese firms' ability to rapidly shift to cater to changing needs from their customers. (Reporting by Wen-Yee Lee; Editing by Miyoung Kim and Shri Navaratnam)
Globe and Mail
19 hours ago
- Globe and Mail
China Unicom Beijing Powers World's First Humanoid Robot Games with Smart 5G-A Network
Beijing, China--(Newsfile Corp. - August 18, 2025) - At the 2025 World Humanoid Robot Games which just kicked off, China Unicom Beijing provides full 5G-A network coverage outside and inside the event venue -- Beijing National Speed Skating Oval. This cutting-edge network, characterized by its high uplink capacity, reliability, and security, is enabling over 500 robots from nearly 280 teams worldwide to compete at their best across athletic, performance, industrial, and healthcare contests. It is also significantly enhancing the experience for tens of thousands of spectators. Such robust 5G-A networks will transform society by propelling humanoid robots beyond competitions and into full-scale commercialization. China Unicom at the World's First Humanoid Robot Games To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: The AI industry is developing rapidly. Multimodal and cross-device interactions are reshaping personal experiences, IoT connections are growing exponentially, and AI is now woven into the fabric of core production processes, completely redefining workflows. These embodied AI robots are a demanding AI application, requiring a specialized network that allows them to perceive their surroundings, make instant decisions, pinpoint their location precisely, and coordinate with other robots. With the games already in play, China Unicom Beijing is delivering reliable, extensive, and high-uplink connectivity for both robots and spectators outside and inside the arena. Outside, a 5G-A 3D network coordinating 1:1 high and mid bands boosts peak uplink and downlink user-perceived rates to 4 Gbps and 11.2 Gbps, respectively. Inside, LampSite offers 300 MHz bandwidth, achieving a peak network speed of 2.4 Gbps. "Our 5G-A networks currently serve users, and we're upgrading them to support embodied AI as well," said Qin Yang, Deputy General Manager of China Unicom Beijing. "Our 5G-A network for this event reflects this progress. It dedicates a channel for spectators and a dynamically scalable one for robots, realizing seamless connectivity for both spectators and robots even during peak usage. In the robot sector, 5G-A will also be key to enabling low-latency remote control." Samuel Chen, Vice President of Marketing for Huawei's Wireless Network Product Line, said, "At the humanoid robot games, the network must support many robots, spectators, and live media streams. It needs to provide high uplink capacity, low latency, high reliability, and wide coverage." Inside the venue, a 5G-A digital indoor system has been developed utilizing 300 MHz ultra-high-bandwidth spectrum. It delivers an uplink speed above 100 Mbps, allowing multiple 4K machine vision streams to be uploaded without frame loss. It also ensures air interface latency remains below 20 ms, so robots can respond to commands instantly. Outside the venue, a 5G-A 3D network coordinates 1:1 high and low bands to achieve downlink and uplink speeds of 10 Gbps and 4 Gbps, respectively. With this fast connectivity, 8K panoramic cameras merge footage live, media like CCTV upload UHD shallow-compressed signals in seconds, and crowds live stream and share videos without lag. As the world's first international sports event for humanoid robots, the games set the stage for a groundbreaking fusion of technology and athletics, signaling AI's expansion into sports at scale. As the event's exclusive global communications partner, China Unicom is dedicated to ensuring millisecond-level network response and zero downtime with its 5G-A, AI, and all-optical network expertise through collaboration with partners. Beyond the event, China Unicom aims to inject strong momentum into the robotics industry. Hashtag: #Huawei The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
