Citigroup Reports on Thursday: How Much Will they Lose?

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) is reporting Q3 2009 earnings on Thursday (Oct 15th) and Wall Street is expecting the 34% U.S. Government Owned Financial Giant to report a loss of 22 Cents per share,  could it be worse?

Last quarter, credit losses climbed 81% to $12.4 billion and showed further deterioration from the $10.3 billion recorded in the first quarter. While Citi's stock has soared since dropping below $1 in March, the stock has been treading water since August as consumers remain concerned over future credit losses. iStockAnalyst.com believes Citi shares will likely remain below $5 until there is clear evidence that these credit losses are abating.

Since the beginning of the year, Citigroup's shares have fallen 31%, but are up over 300% since March. In 2008, Citi's shares fell an amazing 76% and badly underperformed the 34% decline in the Dow Jones industrial average.  Shares are now trading at 66x consensus 2010 EPS estimates.

Depending on the outcome of Citigroup's Thursday earnings call, the market could sway big in either direction.  Citi shares are consistently the number one volume leader on the NYSE, on a typical day close to 1 billion shares trade hands.  There are an unbelievable amount of options riding on Citigroup's earnings call, just take a gander at the $5 Calls and $4 Puts:

Expires	Symbol	Last	Chg	Bid	Ask	Vol	Open Int
Oct 09	CJP.X	0.07	0.01	0.06	0.07	66,565	753,175
Nov 09	CKP.X	0.20	0.03	0.19	0.20	104,768	102,077
Dec 09	CLP.X	0.31	0.02	0.30	0.31	17,689	437,568
Jan 10	CAP.X	0.38	0.04	0.38	0.39	37,831	521,475
Mar 10	CCP.X	0.52	0.04	0.52	0.54	6,850	378,024
Jan 11	VRNAA.X	1.02	0.00	1.02	1.03	32,403	777,774

Expires	Symbol	Last	Chg	Bid	Ask	Vol	Open Int
Oct 09	CVW.X	0.02	0.00	0.02	0.03	15,914	576,114
Nov 09	CWW.X	0.08	0.02	0.08	0.09	23,227	160,758
Dec 09	CXW.X	0.17	0.01	0.17	0.18	3,259	355,193
Jan 10	CMW.X	0.25	0.01	0.25	0.27	2,872	205,622
Mar 10	COW.X	0.38	0.00	0.37	0.39	3,812	125,732

Best of luck to those of you playing the call, let's hope for the good of the economy Citigroup beats the Street.

SOURCE: http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewarticle/articleid/3539549