NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- 2.6 billion shares down, another 5.1 billion to go.

The U.S. government moved closer to unloading its massive stake in the banking giant Citigroup after announcing another major sale of company shares Thursday.

In its latest transaction, the Treasury Department said it sold 1.1 billion shares of stock in the New York City-based bank.

So far, the government has done pretty well for itself, fetching an average price of about $4.03 a share. At that level, U.S. taxpayers have earned a profit of nearly $2.03 billion for bailing out the company.

News 2

US Treasury cuts Citi stake at $2 bln gross profit
Reuters
July 01, 2010: 09:35 AM ET

(Adds details on costs, Citi stake percentage)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department said Thursday it has earned gross profit of about $2 billion so far on the sale of about one-third of its common stock holdings in Citigroup Inc.

The Treasury said it took in gross proceeds of about $10.5 billion from the sale of 2.6 billion Citigroup shares under a written trading plan.

The Treasury said that after selling its second tranche of common stock acquired after bailing out the banking giant, it still holds about 5.1 billion shares.

Treasury said sales so far in the plan administered by Morgan Stanley averaged $4.03 a share versus acquisition cost of $3.25 a share. That would produce a gross profit -- before sales costs -- of around $2 billion for the stock sold so far.