Star bank analyst Richard Bove sees sunny days ahead for beleaguered bank Citigroup.
The stock has soared about 17 percent in just the past 10 days, reaching almost $4 a share. And Bove, the financial strategist at Rochdale Securities, told CNBC that the price could hit $7 in the long term, for a surge of about 75 percent.
The most important bullish event was Citi Chief Executive Vikram Pandit’s recent Congressional testimony, Bove says. “He was just ebullient."
Strong demand for Citi’s preferred share offering also bodes well.
The bank’s balance sheet more than meets all government capital requirements, Bove notes. Citi’s cash reserves total $192 billion, more than 10 percent of its assets.
Bove also approves of Pandit’s plan to sell off some of Citi’s assets.
"If one was able to separate out the business that they're going to sell at the moment, . . . the part that's going to survive has got a 65 cents to 70 cents earnings power, which I think is a $7 stock," he said.
"But you have to go through the sale of the government stock before, I think, it starts to move up even more seriously."
Another star bank analyst, Meredith Whitney, remains bearish on Citi and other big banks.
“Last year, the government did everything possible to make sure the banks made money and were solvent,” Whitney told Bloomberg.
“That punch bowl has been taken away this year.”
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