It will take more than a new CEO to fix Citigroup.
Meredith Whitney, the influential bank analyst who garnered Wall Street glory by making accurate calls against Citi as the financial crisis was gathering steam, said she was “uninspired” by the bank’s newly minted boss, Michael Corbat.
“He didn’t give us an agenda and he didn’t even give us a stamp for when he’s going to give us an agenda, so it left people a little bit uninspired,” she said during an interview with Bloomberg TV yesterday.
Corbat got the top job in October after Citi’s powerful chairman, Michael O’Neill, orchestrated the ouster of Vikram Pandit.
She touted Bank of America, run by CEO Brian Moynihan, as a better investment for potential shareholders as a contrast to Citi. She set a 12-month price target on BofA shares of $15. The stock closed down 9 cents, at $11.84.
Whitney is betting that the firm will get the green light from regulators to buy back as much as $5 billion of shares, which would give shareholders a lift.
As for as Citi, Whitney wrote in a Jan. 17 note to clients that the sprawling firm lacks the “firepower” to make cuts and dial up revenues.
“Investors were disappointed by the lack of firepower to earnings, specifically the lack of reserve releases [against potential loan losses] . . .” she wrote.
“We note that [Citi’s] brethren already have identified specific cost saving initiatives,” she added, citing BofA’s “Project New BAC” to trim staff and expenses and a similar plan by Wells Fargo’s dubbed “Project Compass.”
Her 12-month price target for Citi is $47. Shares fell 18 cents to close at $42.87.