Odeon Capital upgraded Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) to Buy from Hold with a price target of $50.51 following the company’s quarterly earnings report last week.
Citi announced a decrease in profits during Q2 due to a slowdown in dealmaking affecting its investment banking unit. However, the bank's personal banking business provided some positive momentum, balancing out the decline.
According to Odeon Capital, the bank performed poorly in trading fixed income, rates, currencies, and equities compared to the previous year. However, the firm believes this negative trend is not expected to persist due to the stabilization of the markets and increased volatility of the dollar.
Every aspect of investment banking did unusually poorly, largely influenced by the weakness in the overall markets. However, Odeon mentioned that since June, there has been a positive shift in these markets, and this positive trend is anticipated to continue for several quarters.
Odeon anticipates that the capital markets businesses are transitioning from a high-stress phase to a phase of steady growth. Furthermore, it is expected that interest rates will remain elevated. In such a scenario, Citigroup's earnings are predicted to rebound strongly over the next two quarters.
“The main challenge the bank faces will be credit card losses and a slowdown in that business. Netting the whole, it is quite likely that bank earnings will recover meaningfully from the devastation to parts of its business this quarter,” added Odeon.