Citigroup Inc. could suffer as much as $1 billion of after-tax losses from credit turmoil in the third quarter, analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. said on Tuesday.

Investors are carefully watching bank results for sign of credit trouble after years of low credit losses. The subprime mortgage crisis has broadened to junk bonds, leveraged loans, and other markets that banks are active in, potentially forcing banks to write off more assets and record more credit losses.

The Bernstein estimate includes losses before taxes of $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion from leveraged lending, $500 million to $1 billion from leveraged lending, and up to $700 million from structured products, the analysts said.

That adds up to about $2 billion to $3 billion of pre-tax losses, or $650 million to $1 billion after compensation and taxes.

Citigroup said last month that it was stuck at the end of June with four bridge loans, or short-term loans, it was having trouble selling to other institutions as credit markets weaken globally.

Bernstein has an outperform rating on Citigroup with a price target of $65 on its stock.

(Additional reporting by Nivedita Gupta in Bangalore)

(Reporting by Dan Wilchins)

Citigroup Investment