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Citigroup earnings shock: stock lags peers by -3.9%!

TL;DR

Citigroup's stock trailed its big-bank peers by -3.9% on the day the third-quarter 2026 results landed. The report sounded upbeat. The share price in the same window did not.

Good-sounding report, unhappy share price

Citigroup put out its third-quarter 2026 results on 13 October. Management said the quarter included 「the best third-quarter revenue in a decade」. In the same window the share price went the other way. The stock trailed a basket of large American banks by -3.9% on the day of the release, and by the end of the window that gap was -4.4%. The basket holds 3 banks: Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo. There are 6 trading days of price data from the release day onward, including the day itself. The price data here runs through 23 October 2026, the last date available, so the window stops there.

Citigroup and its peers around the news
Citigroup's cumulative line ends the window below the peer basket, with a step down on the day the results came out.
Data table
dayseriesvalueseries_role
-10Citigroup-0.4%target
-9Citigroup-1.4%target
-8Citigroup-3.3%target
-7Citigroup-2.1%target
-6Citigroup-2.1%target
-5Citigroup-2.1%target
-4Citigroup-3.0%target
-3Citigroup-2.5%target
-2Citigroup-1.3%target
-1Citigroup0.5%target
0Citigroup-5.2%target
1Citigroup-6.9%target
2Citigroup-6.2%target
3Citigroup-5.4%target
4Citigroup-7.3%target
5Citigroup-6.7%target
-10Peer basket-0.6%peer
-9Peer basket-1.5%peer
-8Peer basket-1.6%peer
-7Peer basket-1.6%peer
-6Peer basket-1.0%peer
-5Peer basket-0.9%peer
-4Peer basket-1.9%peer
-3Peer basket-1.0%peer
-2Peer basket0.2%peer
-1Peer basket0.4%peer
0Peer basket-1.3%peer
1Peer basket-2.4%peer
2Peer basket-1.4%peer
3Peer basket-0.9%peer
4Peer basket-2.8%peer
5Peer basket-2.3%peer
-10Cumulative abnormal return0.2%neutral
-9Cumulative abnormal return0.1%neutral
-8Cumulative abnormal return-1.7%neutral
-7Cumulative abnormal return-0.5%neutral
-6Cumulative abnormal return-1.1%neutral
-5Cumulative abnormal return-1.2%neutral
-4Cumulative abnormal return-1.1%neutral
-3Cumulative abnormal return-1.5%neutral
-2Cumulative abnormal return-1.5%neutral
-1Cumulative abnormal return0.1%neutral
0Cumulative abnormal return-3.8%neutral
1Cumulative abnormal return-4.5%neutral
2Cumulative abnormal return-4.7%neutral
3Cumulative abnormal return-4.5%neutral
4Cumulative abnormal return-4.5%neutral
5Cumulative abnormal return-4.4%neutral

The growth rate was cooling before this report

Now the part a headline misses. The ly figures available here run through the fourth quarter of 2025, so they stop short of the quarter in the news. Measured against the same quarter a year earlier, growth in that last quarter on record was 2.1%. That was down from 9.3% the quarter before. Compared with the quarter just before it, revenue changed by -10.0%. Revenue can sit near the top of its range while the shrinks, and that is roughly the picture in the chart. Watch whether the next few quarters put that growth line back up, because that is the number investors argue about.

Glossary
revenue
All the money a company took in from its business over a period, before any costs are taken out.
growth rate
How much bigger or smaller a figure is than the same figure a year earlier, stated as a percentage.
quarter
A three-month slice of a company's financial year. Big companies report results four times a year, one per quarter.

How fast do you think revenue grew against the same quarter a year earlier, in the last quarter on record?

Show answer

2.1% It was 2.1%. Most people guess higher, because the quarter before came in at 9.3% and the company talks about record revenue. Both things are in the same chart.

Revenue and its growth rate, by quarter
Revenue is highest in 2025Q3, yet the growth line ends the period at 2.1%, far below its 2024Q4 high.
Data table
periodrevenueyoy
2023Q1$21.4bn—
2023Q2$19.4bn—
2023Q3$20.1bn8.8%
2023Q4$17.0bn-5.3%
2024Q1$21.0bn-2.0%
2024Q2$20.0bn3.1%
2024Q3$20.2bn0.3%
2024Q4$19.5bn14.2%
2025Q1$21.6bn2.8%
2025Q2$21.7bn8.2%
2025Q3$22.1bn9.3%
2025Q4$19.9bn2.1%

Zoom out a year and the stock still beat the market

One bad week is not one year. An amount put into Citigroup shares on 23 October 2025 grew 27.4% by 23 October 2026. The same amount in the broad market grew 14.4%. The ride was bumpy: along the way the stock sat -16.8% below its own high point at the worst moment. Past performance does not predict future results, and a single year says nothing about the next one.

Quick quiz

A company reports its best revenue in years and the stock falls. What does that usually tell you?

Show answer

Expectations were already high Prices move on surprises. Here the growth rate in the last quarter on record was 2.1%, slower than the 9.3% of the quarter before, which shows the pace was already easing.

Risks

  • A goodwill charge a year earlier flatters the year-on-year profit comparison.
  • Three peers is a small, rough basket for a price comparison.
  • Currency swings or accounting changes distort year-on-year figures.

Sources

  1. FinMind USStockPrice BAC — data as of 2026-10-23; fetched 2026-10-25 17:05 UTC; License note: FinMind open data; original source TWSE/TPEx or US exchanges
  2. FinMind USStockPrice C — data as of 2026-10-23; fetched 2026-10-25 17:05 UTC; License note: FinMind open data; original source TWSE/TPEx or US exchanges
  3. FinMind USStockPrice JPM — data as of 2026-10-23; fetched 2026-10-25 17:05 UTC; License note: FinMind open data; original source TWSE/TPEx or US exchanges
  4. FinMind USStockPrice WFC — data as of 2026-10-23; fetched 2026-10-25 17:05 UTC; License note: FinMind open data; original source TWSE/TPEx or US exchanges
  5. SEC EDGAR XBRL companyfacts, Citigroup Inc — data as of 2025-12-31; fetched 2026-10-25 15:43 UTC