Citigroup reports 1Q net profit

Citigroup ( C) reported a loss to common shareholders of $966 million after massive loan losses and dividends to preferred stockholders. But before paying those dividends, the bank had net income of $1.6 billion.

Overall, Citigroup's results were better than expected. Last year, Citigroup lost more than $5 billion. Citigroup's revenue doubled in the first quarter from a year ago to $24.8 billion. Its credit costs were high, though, at $10 billion, due to $7.3 billion in loan losses and a $2.7 billion increase in reserves for future loan losses.

Citigroup has been one of the weakest of the large U.S. banks, posting quarterly losses since the fourth quarter of 2007. It was one of the first signals that the banking industry might not be as sick as many believed.

• BB&T ( BBT) posted a 37 percent decline in first-quarter profit, as loans that were overdue or written off as unpaid surged and the regional bank put aside more cash to cover souring credit. For the three months ended March 31, BB&T said net income after paying preferred dividends fell to $271 million from $428 million in the 2008 quarter. BB&T said a settlement with the Internal Revenue Service increased profit in the quarter by $17 million. Net interest income, or income recorded from interest on assets like loans and mortgages, rose 13 percent to $1.15 billion, from $1.02 billion last year.

• General Electric ( GE) reported a 36 percent decline in its first-quarter earnings on sharply lower profits at its troubled finance arm, but the results beat Wall Street forecasts in a glimmer of good news for the struggling company.

After paying preferred dividends, GE's net income totaled $2.74 billion, down from $4.30 billion. Revenue fell 9 percent to $38 billion, with sales down or flat in every division except GE's energy business. The broad recession has hurt many of GE's industrial businesses that make products like jet engines, oil field equipment and household appliances. Sales also declined at GE's entertainment division, which includes the NBC television network.

• Mattel ( MAT), the largest U.S. toymaker, said weak sales overseas and cautious retailer orders led to a wider first-quarter loss.

The toy maker's loss for the quarter ended March 31 totaled $51 million compared with a loss of $46.6 million a year ago.

Revenue fell 15 percent to $785.6 million from $919.3 million last year.

• Newspaper publisher and TV station owner Media General ( MEG) reported a wider first-quarter loss Friday on a deepening slide in advertising revenue.

The company also said it cut its work force by nearly 300 jobs in the week of March 31 and plans to freeze its pension plan at the end of May.

The publisher of the Richmond Times-Dispatch and The Tampa Tribune lost $21.3 million in the January-March period, compared to a loss of $20.3 million a year earlier.

The company said its loss in the most recent quarter included severance costs of $4.5 million. Revenue fell 18 percent to $159 million from $194.5 million a year ago.