Citigroup shares drop due to ‘one-time items’

Citigroup shares fell yesterday after the group reported fourth-quarter revenue gains that some analysts said came from too many one-time items. The shares dropped to under $43 in New York trading, having earlier touched $42.11, and are now down some 17 per cent this year.

"It was a quarter with a great many special items," Chris Kotowski, an analyst at Oppenheimer and Co, said in a report after the New York-based bank released its financial results.

Net income climbed to $3.34 billion, or $1.02 a share, from $344 million, or 6 cents, a year earlier, the bank said in a statement. Adjusted earnings per share of $1.06 beat the $1.05 average of 26 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

For the full year, the company reported adjusted net income of $17.1 billion, the most since 2006, helped by cost cuts. – (Bloomberg)