Earnings Preview: CIT Group

CIT Group (CIT) is expected to report Q2 earnings before market open on Thursday, July 17, with a conference call scheduled for 9:00 am ET.

Guidance

Analysts are looking for EPS of ($3.41) on revenue of $586.68M. The consensus range for EPS is ($7.31) to 35c, while the consensus range for revenue is $545.70M to $501M, according to First Call.

Analyst Views

CIT Group announced on July 1 that it would sell its home lending business to Lone Star Funds, a private equity firm. Lone Star will pay $1.5B in cash for the business, and assume $4.4B of outstanding debt and other related liabilities. On the same day, CIT agreed to sell its $470M manufactured housing portfolio to Vanderbilt Mortgage and Finance for about $300M, and CIT also predicted that it would record a pre-tax Q2 loss of $2.5B from the sale of its home lending segment. Lehman Brothers believes the deal is positive for CIT, and the firm thinks that CIT has enough liquidity to last into 2009. Lehman's target for CIT is in the mid to high teens.