Which 5 Mega-Bank Stocks have the Strongest Earnings Trends?

January 13, 2013

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Earnings trends are extremely important when evaluating stocks. At Wall St. Cheat Sheet, we view increasing earnings quarter-over-quarter as a simple way to gauge whether costs and the business model are stable. Then we like to analyze whether the company is outperforming peers in the sector. This is what we call the “E-Squared” investment analysis (‘E = Earnings Are Increasing Quarter-Over-Quarter’ + ‘E = Excellent Relative Performance Versus Peers and Sector’).

Stocks with improving earnings metrics are worthy of your extra attention. Click here to discover our CHEAT SHEET stock picks now!

Here’s your Cheat Sheet to how the top 5 mega-bank stocks rank via earnings trends:

5) Citigroup (NYSE:C): Current Price $42.34

Fiscal Year	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Revenue ($) in millions	153,260	104,350	108,190	111,700	102,590
Diluted EPS ($)	6.70	-56.30	-7.99	3.54	3.63

Well, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see Citigroup almost went bust in 2008. The company has at least regained some sea legs, but 2011 wasn’t anything to write home about.

Next, our CHEAT SHEET investing framework asks us to drill down to the recent quarterly data:

Quarter	Sep. 30, 2011	Dec. 31, 2011	Mar. 31, 2012	Jun. 30, 2012	Sep. 30, 2012
Revenue ($) in millions	26,860	22,890	25,000	24,080	18,970
Diluted EPS ($)	1.23	0.32	0.95	0.95	0.15

As you’ll see below, last quarter wasn’t the best for financials. However, Citigroup saw much higher declines than the stocks below…

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