Key Stats for Citigroup Stock
- Price Change for Citigroup stock: 4%
- Current Share Price: $100
- 52-Week High: $106
- $C Stock Price Target: $111
What Happened?
Citigroup (C) stock jumped over 4% today after the bank crushed third-quarter earnings expectations, with every single business delivering record revenue. The results show CEO Jane Fraser’s multi-year transformation is finally gaining serious momentum.
Adjusted earnings hit $2.26 per share, demolishing the $1.93 estimate. Revenue reached $22.09 billion versus expectations of $21.2 billion. Net income climbed 15% to $3.8 billion, while revenue grew 9% with record performance across all five business lines.
Breaking down the businesses:
- Services posted its best quarter ever with revenue up 7%, driven by a sharp focus on fee growth and cross-border transactions.
- Markets had a record third quarter with revenue jumping 15%, despite low volatility, as client activity remained elevated.
- Banking revenue surged 34% as CEO confidence returned with a clearer tariff picture and record equity prices. Investment banking fees alone rose 17% with growth across all products.
- Wealth revenue climbed 8% with a record $18.6 billion in net new investment assets—the highest quarterly total ever.
- U.S. Personal Banking revenue grew 7% with strong momentum in branded cards, including the well-received Citi Strata Elite card launch.
The bank also made major progress on its Mexico exit. Citi announced a deal to sell a 25% stake in Banamex to Fernando Chico Pardo, a highly reputable Mexican business leader with a 50-year track record.
This represents a significant step toward deconsolidation and eventual full exit. The transaction, valued at 0.8x book value, will move toward an IPO after regulatory approval, which typically takes 9-12 months in Mexico.
Credit quality remains strong with 85% of card customers having FICO scores of 660 or higher. The bank ended the quarter with a CET1 ratio of 13.2%, well above the 12.1% regulatory requirement, providing substantial capacity for buybacks.
Citi repurchased $5 billion in stock during the quarter, bringing year-to-date buybacks to nearly $9 billion of the $20 billion program.
See analysts’ growth forecasts and price targets for Citigroup stock (It’s free!) >>>
What the Market Is Telling Us About Citigroup Stock
The market’s enthusiasm for Citigroup stock reflects years of grinding transformation work finally showing up in the numbers.
Fraser has fundamentally changed how Citi operates over the past few years—exiting consumer businesses in 14 countries, adding new senior leadership, becoming more disciplined with capital allocation, and focusing on businesses where the bank has competitive advantages.
Citi has now delivered positive operating leverage for the firm multiple quarters in a row. Year-to-date revenue is up 7% while expenses are flat (excluding the Banamex goodwill charge).
The bank expects to exceed $84 billion in full-year revenue, given the strong 7% year-to-date growth. They’re targeting an efficiency ratio below 64% for the year and maintaining the 10%-11% return on tangible common equity target for 2026.
CFO Mark Mason emphasized that the path to sub-60% efficiency by the end of 2026 remains intact.
The transformation spend, currently running under $3.5 billion this year, is finally declining as programs reach the target state.
Over two-thirds of transformation programs are at or close to completion, with significant progress in risk, compliance, and controls. Fraser noted controls are now automated and standardized across 85 countries, covering $1.3 trillion in daily payments.
Nearly 180,000 employees across 83 countries now use Citi’s proprietary AI tools, which have been deployed almost 7 million times this year.
AI-driven code reviews have exceeded 1 million, creating roughly 100,000 hours of weekly productivity capacity. The bank is piloting agentic AI for 5,000 employees, enabling them to complete complex multi-step tasks with a single prompt.
On capital, the new stress capital buffer of 3.6% (down from 4.1%) provides additional deployment flexibility.
Management is targeting a 12.8% CET1 ratio going forward, down from the current 13.2%, which means more capital available for buybacks and growth investments.
Fraser emphasized May 7th as the date for the next Investor Day, where the bank will lay out targets beyond the 10%-11% ROTCE goal for 2026.
She made clear the current target is “a waypoint, not a destination,” signaling higher return ambitions ahead as the transformation completes and businesses scale.
With the stock still trading around 1x tangible book value despite a 40%+ gain this year, management sees significant upside remaining.
The combination of improving returns, declining transformation costs, capital deployment, and business momentum is finally converging into a compelling story.
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Disclaimer:
Please note that the articles on TIKR are not intended to serve as investment or financial advice from TIKR or our content team, nor are they recommendations to buy or sell any stocks. We create our content based on TIKR Terminal’s investment data and analysts’ estimates. Our analysis might not include recent company news or important updates. TIKR has no position in any stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading, and happy investing!
