Citigroup Follows a Tough Act in JPMorgan

Updated from Wednesday, Oct. 14.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Citigroup(C Quote) was already under plenty of pressure to turn things around, but JPMorgan Chase's (JPM Quote) blowout earnings performance in the third quarter didn't make things any easier.

Citi's third-quarter results are due before Thursday's opening bell. The two companies are similar in many ways -- Citi is probably more globally oriented than JPMorgan, at least in it consumer businesses -- but Wall Street is expecting a very different outcome. The current average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters is for a loss of 38 cents a share from Citi in the September period with revenue projected at $20 billion.

The recipient of $45 billion in government funds, Citi has undertaken a host of management and business restructurings in its efforts to fix its struggling businesses. The company is likely to post strong investment banking results in the quarter, as did JPMorgan, but the consumer businesses are likely to remain a sore spot.

At the same time, Citi has been selling off a number of assets -- including several profitable ones, like the joint venture agreement between its Smith Barney operations and Morgan Stanley (MS Quote) as well as the divestiture of its Nikko businesses -- in order to shrink its balance sheet. That will, obviously, cut into the company's revenue generating abilities.

Wall Street had a mixed opinion of the company ahead of the report. Of the 20 analysts covering Citi, nine had the stock rated at hold, while 6 ranked it as a buy. The other five ratings were spread between buy (2), sell (2) and underperform (1).