Citigroup Inc (C)

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The best is yet to come,



NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Citigroup's (C) heightened international focus already looks like a smart move. The bank and CEO Vikram Pandit took another step forward Friday as Citigroup's latest profit topped Wall Street expectations for a second quarter in a row. Although the bottom-line results were below the bank's performance in both the first quarter and year-ago period, Citigroup still posted a healthy plus-80% beat because of not only lower credit costs but strong earnings from abroad. And CFO John Gerspach reiterated that Citigroup expects the majority of its future growth to come from beyond U.S. borders on the bank's conference call following the report.
"I think you see that clearly portrayed in our results this quarter," he said on the call. "Asia and Latin America contribute something less than 40% of revenue for Citicorp and yet generated more than 50% of net income."
The business split is encouraging given the worries of late about the U.S. economy falling into a double-dip recession as well as the unfolding impact of financial reform.
Against that backdrop, Citigroup's global positioning bodes well for the recovering company, and the stock could take off once the U.S. Treasury fully sells out its stake in the bank and it gets a few more quarters of improved credit quality under its belt.
Citigroup's money-center rivals JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Bank of America(JPM) and Wells Fargo(WFC) are not nearly as well positioned outside the United States.