Autor: News Team

During a strong third quarter, Citigroup Inc (NYSE-C) saw strong revenue growth and positive operating leverage in all five of its segments. The company’s services business continued its momentum after gaining share across TTS and securities services in the first half of this year. Strength in equity markets with equity markets up 32% year-on-year. Financial Services continued to gain, driven primarily by a 75% increase in banking fees and a 32% increase in advisory fees. The company posted total sales of $20.315 billion for the third quarter of 2024 with a 1% year-over-year increase. The company’s operating profit stood at USD 13.250 billion with a year-on-year growth of 2%. After deducting all expenses, the company recorded a net profit of USD 3.238 billion. This increase in revenue was due to growth in all business areas, partially offset by declines in all other areas. Citigroup’s operating expenses of $13.3 billion decreased 2%, both on a reported basis and excluding the impact of the sale . This decrease in costs was primarily due to savings associated with Citi’s organizational simplification and reduction in stranded costs, partially offset by volume-related costs and continued investment in transformation and other risk and control initiatives. Citigroup’s credit costs were approximately $2.7 billion in the third quarter of 2024 compared to $1.8 billion in the prior year period, primarily driven by higher net card losses and higher provision for credit losses (ACL) due to portfolio growth and composition.

Citigroup Inc (NYSE-C) is moving vital infrastructure to Google Cloud as part of a broader AI push. The companies have joined forces in a strategic, multi-year agreement to support Citi’s digital strategy through cloud technology and artificial intelligence (AI). The collaboration focuses on modernizing Citi’s technology infrastructure and improving employee and client experiences with cloud applications. Through the collaboration, Citi will migrate more applications to Google Cloud’s secure and scalable infrastructure. By modernizing its technology infrastructure in Google Cloud, Citi will unlock the ability to offer enhanced digital products, streamline employee workflows, and run high-performance computing (HPC) and analytics platforms. This includes leveraging advanced HPC capabilities to facilitate the execution of millions of calculations per day across Citi Markets. As part of the agreement, Citi will also use Google Cloud’s Vertex AI platform to deliver generative AI capabilities across the company. With Google Cloud, Citi will be able to support its generative AI initiatives related to developer toolkits, document processing and digitization capabilities to strengthen customer service teams.

Tim Ryan, Citi’s director of technology and business support, said: “Citi’s goal is to modernize our infrastructure and improve our security and reliability so that our businesses can continue to serve our clients quickly and flexibly, where leveraging Google Cloud opens up a whole new frontier in how we can run applications with faster, more complex outputs and provide our colleagues with the tools they need to deliver to our clients.”

Citigroup Inc (NYSE-C) also pays a quarterly dividend. Currently, the dividend yield is at 3.46% per annum and the actual dividend amount approved by the company’s board of directors is $0.56 per share. The average target price has been set at $72.83 per share for the short to medium term investment horizon.

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Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ-MSFT) will release its first quarter 2025 financial results. This release will be made on October 30, 2024 via a live online webcast on Microsoft Investor Relations at https:// www.microsoft.com/en-us/Investor/. Multinational investment corporation analysts expect revenue growth given the company’s performance, which for fiscal year 2024, according to the press release, saw all revenue in all business segments grow 16% to $245.1 billion, with productivity and business process revenue increasing due to Office 365 Commercial. Revenues for fiscal year 2024 increased in the personal computing sector due to gaming. Operating profit increased 17% year-over-year to $109.4 billion, and gross margin also increased due to improvements in Azure Interface, Office 365 Commercial, and AI infrastructure.

Microsoft Corporation also recently launched a large-scale investment in Floyd County, Georgia, on Huffaker Road in Rome.  This investment will exceed $1 billion and will include the construction of a data center to support the Azure platform. “This is a tremendous economic opportunity for our community that will have positive impacts for decades to come,” said Jimmy Byars, Chairman of the Rome Floyd County Development Authority. The site itself is 347 acres in size. The company will also create 150 senior management jobs at the Georgia data center with this investment. This project is expected to take about three years to complete. Microsoft Azure (“Azure”) is Microsoft Inc’s global technology infrastructure, which consists of two key components – physical infrastructure and interconnecting network components. This technology infrastructure consists of more than 200 physical data centres, organized into regions and connected by one of the largest interconnected technology networks in the world.

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The company also pays regular quarterly dividends to its shareholders. Currently, the dividend yield is 0.72% p.a. The actual dividend amount was approved by the AGM at $0.83 per share. The company also currently has a known date for the use of the stock’s dividend payment (NASDAQ-MSFT), the so-called Ex-Dividend-Date), which has been set for November 21, 2024. The company has set the actual dividend payment date (Pay-Date) for December 12, 2024. According to analysts at brokerage firms and financial strategists at investment banks, the stock price can be expected to rise in the short to medium term investment horizon. The average target price for the short- to medium-term investment horizon has been set at $503.24 per share.

Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ-GOOGL) CEO Sundar Pichai, plans to invest $3.3 billion to build out data centers in South Carolina. With this move, the company wants to boost its artificial intelligence development by expanding its infrastructure for AI applications. Among other things, the South Carolina governor’s office also said in a statement that Alphabet Inc. will build two new data centres in Dorchester County and expand an existing data centre in Berkeley County. Alphabet Inc.’s Google also plans to invest $1 billion to build data centers in Thailand, joining global technology companies building cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure in Southeast Asia. Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ-GOOGL) also said in a press release that it will build another data center in Bangkok and Chonburi, a province southeast of the capital. The spending could help add $4 billion to the Thai economy by 2029, supporting 14,000 jobs in the area over the next five years.

The company also pays a regular quarterly dividend to its investors, which currently has a dividend yield of 0.48%. The actual dividend was approved by the Company’s Annual General Meeting at $0.20 per share. According to Multinational Investment Corporation, the share price of Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ-GOOGL), can be expected to be in a bull market trend, i.e. an uptrend in the share price. The average target price for the short- to medium-term investment horizon was set at $202.11 per share.

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Citigroup Inc. has partnered with Apollo Global Management Inc. in the fast-growing private credit market. The goal of the collaboration is to arrange financing for corporate and private equity clients. Apollo Global Management, Inc. is a U.S. asset management company that primarily invests in alternative assets. In 2022, the company had USD 548 billion in assets under management, including USD 392 billion invested in loans, mezzanine capital, hedge funds, non-performing loans and collateralized loan obligations. The company also invested USD 99 billion in private equity and USD 46.2 billion in real estate infrastructure. The companies will initially focus on this strategic partnership in North America, along with other partners such as Mubadala Investment Co. and insurer Apollo Athene. The companies have agreed to work together on transactions worth $25 billion over the next five years. Citigroup Inc (NYSE-C) also has plans to expand into China. However, Citigroup has hit a snag with U.S. regulators there because it has not yet received a letter of approval from Chinese authorities verifying Citigroup Inc.’s regulatory status, which are necessary to document.

Citigroup Inc (NYSE-C) will also release its third quarter 2024 financial results via a press release on October 15, 2024. The company reported an increase in its revenue for the fiscal year 2023, with total sales of $78.46 billion. The company’s operating profit was USD 12.91 billion. After deducting all expenses, the company earned a net profit of USD 9.228 billion. The company has total assets of USD 2.412 trillion and equity of USD 205.5 billion. The company employs 239,000 tribal workers. Citigroup Inc (NYSE-C) also pays a quarterly dividend. Currently, the dividend yield is at 4.32% per annum and the actual dividend amount approved by the company’s annual general meeting is $0.51 per share.  The average target price has been set by 18 Wall Street brokers for the short to medium term investment horizon at $71.36 per share.

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Uber Technologies, Inc. (UBER:NYSE) announced a partnership with WeRide to implement the technology startup robotaxis in the United Arab Emirates, according to a Sept. 25 press release. This partnership with WeRide is expected to launch in Abu Dhabi later this year. WeRide is an international L4 autonomous driving technology company and is the only technology company in the world to hold driverless driving permits in China, the US, the UAE and Singapore. WeRide’s first global collaboration will help expand its reach beyond China, while Uber continues to integrate robotaxis into its business platform. WeRide has been awarded the UAE’s first and only national license for self-driving vehicles, allowing the Chinese firm to test and operate robotaxis on public roads across the UAE. WeRide will also be going public in the near future through an initial public offering on the US stock exchange. The value of the IPO is expected to be worth up to US$5 billion. Currently, the initial public offering has been postponed due to incomplete documentation and the company is working to complete the necessary documentation.

Uber Technologies, Inc. (UBER:NYSE) has also expanded its partnership with Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O), which will open Waymo’s route through robotaxis to the U.S., specifically Austin and Atlanta. Uber has also teamed up with automotive giant General Motors Corp (owns brands: Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadilac, Baojun, Wuling) through robotaxi, which will offer driverless autonomous vehicles in its lineup starting next year.

The company also recently released its financial results for the second quarter of 2024. Uber Technologies, Inc (UBER:NYSE)’s total revenue grew 21% year-over-year to $40 billion. Against the estimates from Bloomberg analysts were USD 39.7 billion. Operating profit for the second quarter increased 17% year-over-year to $10.7 billion. Net income increased 144% year-over-year to $796 million. Net income attributable to Uber Technologies, Inc. was $1.0 billion, which includes a $333 million (pre-tax) benefit due to net unrealized gains related to the revaluation of Uber’s equity investments. Uber Technologies Inc. reported better-than-expected orders in the second quarter, underscoring continued strong demand for taxi and delivery services. This has made Uber Technologies, Inc (UBER:NYSE) a very attractive stock to buy for private investors and multinational banking corporations, where an average target price of $89.31 per share has been set by 31 Wall Street analysts for the short- to medium-term investment horizon.

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The stunning stock growth Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ-NVDA) has seen over the past year has made the company one of the three most valuable companies in the world. One is that the applications of artificial intelligence enabled by its semiconductors will become a feature of the modern economy. But its continued success depends on whether Microsoft Corp, Google and other tech companies find enough commercial uses for Nvidia’s AI chips. Nvidia has also engaged antitrust authorities, who have focused on Nvidia’s market dominance and are examining whether customers are complaining about the company’s switching to other suppliers of AI chip suitors.

Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ-NVDA) recently released its second quarter financial results. The company posted record quarterly revenue, which increased 122% year-over-year to $30.0 billion. The largest increase was in data center sales. Record quarterly data center sales were $26.3 billion, an increase of 154% year-over-year! The company’s gross profit increased 138% year-over-year to $22.574 billion. Excluding all expenses, the company’s net profit was 168% higher year-over-year at $16.599 billion. These facts have intrigued investors to buy shares of Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ-NVDA) specifically, which also recently revealed improved generative AI that will be delivered in new chips. In Denver, CEO Jensen Huang described the company’s role in developing AI, as well as chips and hardware in the world. For example, the company is currently making AI services and models available to help robot makers accelerate the development of humanoid robots to help researchers teach robots how to perform certain tasks using devices such as Apple’s Vision Pro virtual glasses. The company also recently revealed at a conference in Denver, a future collaboration between Nvidia and Facebook in the areas of graphics and virtual environments.

The charm of artificial intelligence is the long-term ability of software and systems to learn without human intervention. This gives AI-driven software and systems the ability to become more efficient at performing tasks and to evolve to learn new skills. With a market that spans most sectors and industries, PwC analysts believe that AI can add $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030. Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ-NVDA) also pays regular quarterly dividends to its shareholders. The dividend yield is currently 0.03% per annum and the actual dividend amount has been approved by the company’s general meeting of shareholders at $0.04 per share. The average target price for the short to medium term investment horizon has been set at $152.44 per share. 

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The company has released its financial results for 2Q 2024, confirming the continued growth of Ferrari N.V. (NYSE-RACE), as the company posted a 16.2% year-over-year increase in total sales to $1.712 billion. Operating profit rose 13.7% to $669 million. After all expenses, net income was $413 million. Deliveries of Ferrari-branded vehicles totaled 3,484 units in Q2 2024, up 2.7% from the previous year. Demand in the Americas rose by 112 cars, while demand in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan fell by 61 cars. In other countries, there was an increase of 24 cars for the second quarter. Ferrari is also strengthening its support department as limited edition models see a rise in demand. Ferrari NV raised its full-year outlook thanks to higher demand in the sector for limited-edition cars such as the $2.2 million Daytona SP3. The supercar maker has now revised its full-year 2024 profit outlook to €2.5 billion ($2.7 billion), up from its previous estimate of around €2.45 billion.

Ferrari N.V. (NYSE-RACE) also regularly pays an annual dividend to its shareholders. The dividend yield is currently 0.57% p.a. and the actual dividend amount has been approved by the company’s general meeting of shareholders at EUR 2.6011 per share. The title is currently in high demand by private investors and multinational investment corporations to buy shares of Ferrari N.V. (NYSE-RACE). According to fifteen Wall Street brokerage firm analysts and investment bank financial strategists, an increase in the share price can be expected for the short to medium term investment horizon. The average target price for the stock with a high estimate was set at $519.71 per share.

The Walt Disney Co. (NYSE-DIS) was founded by Mr. Walt Disney and Roy Disney on October 16, 1923 in Los Angeles, California, USA. Its business segments include – Media Networks, theme parks and resorts, interactive products, and consumer promotional products. The Media Networks segment includes cable, terrestrial and satellite broadcasting, distribution of television shows and radio stations. The Walt Disney Co (NYSE-DIS) also broadcasts in the entertainment segment, social events and animated films, recorded music, and live theatrical plays. The company owns theme parks and resorts and operates Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, which includes theme parks, hotels, restaurants, sports complexes, convention centers, campgrounds, golf courses, and water sports parks. The Walt Disney Co. (NYSE-DIS) also owns and operates Disneyland Resort in California, Disney Vacation Club and Disney Cruise Line. The company also operates the Disneyland Resort in Paris, the Disneyland Resort in Hong Kong and the Disney Resort in Tokyo, Japan. The company employs 225,000 tribal workers.

The Walt Disney Co (NYSE-DIS) has released its third-quarter 2024 financial results through its earnings report. For the third quarter, the company posted a 4% year-over-year increase in revenue to $23.2 billion. Operating profit recorded a 16.6% increase to $4.2 billion. Excluding all expenses, the company posted a 35% year-over-year increase in net income to $1.39 billion.

Walt Disney World has announced longer hours of operation for its parks throughout August, and a new Walt Disney World virtual queue (Lightning Lane Multi Pass) is now in operation for the 19th day to save guests wait time when entering the property. The company also unveiled new attractions “Avatar,” “Indiana Jones,” “Encanto” and “Monsters, Inc. “The company will celebrate its 70th anniversary next year when a show based on the life of Walt Disney with an audio-animated character of the company’s founder will open at Disneyland Park in Anaheim to mark the occasion. Walt Disney also unveiled two attractions for the new customer expansion, Tropical Americas, located at Disney’s Animal Kingdom park in Orlando, Florida, where, for example, guests watch Indiana Jones explore a Mayan temple, or watch Disney’s animated film “Encanto” featuring the character Antonio on the day he received his magical gift. The new Tropical America attraction is set to open in 2027.

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The company also pays a regular dividend to its shareholders. The quarterly dividend payout is $0.90 per share. The annual dividend yield is 1.04% p.a. These facts have attracted multinational investment corporations and private investors to buy shares of Walt Disney Co. (NYSE-DIS) in particular. 24 Wall Street brokers have set an average target price for the short- to medium-term investment horizon at $117.60 per share.

FedEx shares hit a new high. FedEx stock is up more than 20% year-to-date, pushing it to an all-time high of $315.59 per share. The president and chief executive officer of FedEx Corp. Raj Subramaniam said: “We made significant progress in fiscal 2024 and ended the year well, delivering four consecutive quarters of growing operating income and margins in a challenging revenue environment.” “These results are unprecedented in this current environment and reflect our continued execution of our DRIVE initiatives and our commitment to transforming FedEx while delivering superior service to our customers. We expect this momentum to continue in fiscal 2025 as we advance our efforts to create the most flexible, efficient and intelligent network in the world.” The Company generated total sales of USD 22.1 billion for fiscal year 2024. After deducting all expenses, the company earned a net profit of USD 1.47 billion. Sales in the fourth quarter increased slightly from the year-ago period. Operating income and margins improved, reflecting lower structural costs as the company continued to execute its DRIVE program.

During fiscal year 2024, FedEx returned approximately $3.8 billion to shareholders through share repurchases and dividend payments of $1.3 billion. Repurchases during fiscal 2024 totaled approximately 9.8 million shares. Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer John Dietrich said: “As we progress in our transformation, we remain focused on reducing structural costs and reducing the capital intensity of the business. Improved earnings and better capital discipline have enabled us to return $3.8 billion to shareholders during fiscal 2024 while prudently investing in our business.”

The company also released forecasts for fiscal year 2025 via a press release. The outlook for fiscal year 2025 includes $2.2 billion in cost savings.

The company expects to return $3.8 billion to its shareholders through share repurchases and dividends. FedEx Corporation (NYSE-FDX) also pays regular quarterly dividends to its shareholders. The dividend yield is currently 1.85% per annum, and the actual dividend amount has been approved by the company’s board of directors at $1.380 per share. According to analysts at brokerage firms and financial strategists at investment banks, the share price can be expected to rise in the short to medium term investment horizon, where the average target price has been set at USD 322.53 per share.

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