Five ETFs With Biggest Citigroup Stake

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Citigroup (C) beat analysts' first-quarter earnings estimates, prompting investors to push up its stock by 7% yesterday.

With the gain, Citigroup's stock has soared more than 40% this year, giving investors an opportunity to buy more and possibly cash in as the bank's balance sheet improves -- or sell on expectations the rally has gotten ahead of itself given there are obstacles ahead.

Above are the exchange traded funds with the highest concentration of Citigroup shares, according to Marco Polo XTF.

The ETF with the biggest stake in Citigroup shares is KBW Bank ETF (KBE), at 8.4% of assets. iShares Dow Jones US Financial Services (IYG) is second at 6.5%.

All five of the ETFs have had a great year. Even though they haven't recovered all of their losses over the past three years, it may be time to look for the exit.

That's because TheStreet.com Ratings' stock model grades Citigroup at D, or "sell." Beyond the model, which is conservative in nature, there are two bearish signals.

First, the U.S. government is in the process of selling 7.7 billion shares of Citigroup worth as much as $35 billion. The first third of the sales are scheduled to happen this year. Once the government has sold its last Citigroup share, selling pressure will be diminished.

The second sign will come directly from Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit. He's restricting his salary to $1 a year until Citigroup is consistently profitable. When he finally believes in the sustainability of his own company, maybe we can too.

For the best rated exchange traded funds, check out our Top ETFs page.

-- Reported by Kevin Baker in Jupiter, Fla.

Kevin Baker became the senior financial analyst for TheStreet Ratings upon the August 2006 acquisition of Weiss Ratings by TheStreet.com, covering mutual funds. He joined the Weiss Group in 1997 as a banking and brokerage analyst. In 1999, he created the Weiss Group's first ratings to gauge the level of risk in U.S. equities. Baker received a B.S. degree in management from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an M.B.A. with a finance specialization from Nova Southeastern University.