Skip to main content

Citizens Financial Group Inc. (CFG) Stock

Citizens Financial Group Inc. Stock Details, Movements and Public Alerts

Citizens Financial Group (CFG): Regional Banking's Quiet Pivot to High-Net-Worth Wealth Management

While regional bank stocks faced turmoil in 2023-2024, Bruce Van Saun quietly executed a strategic repositioning that most investors missed. Since taking the helm as CEO in 2013, Van Saun has transformed Citizens Financial Group from a traditional commercial lender into a diversified financial services provider with meaningful wealth management exposure. The April 2025 promotion of Brendan Coughlin to President signals the next phase: accelerating growth in Citizens Private Bank, which now holds $8.7 billion in high-quality deposits and $5.2 billion in assets under management. Combined with the August 2025 appointment of Aunoy Banerjee (formerly Barclays CFO) to strengthen financial discipline, Van Saun has assembled a leadership team focused on premium banking segments that generate fee income rather than relying solely on interest rate spreads. For investors seeking regional bank exposure with lower credit risk and diversified revenue, Citizens offers a compelling alternative to peers still dominated by commercial real estate lending.

52-Week Range

$54.74 - $31.67

-7.87% from high · +59.24% from low

Avg Daily Volume

15,057

Latest volume

Fundamentals

Valuation Metrics

P/E Ratio (TTM)

16.31

Near market average

Forward P/E

10.65

Earnings expected to grow

PEG Ratio

0.26

Potentially undervalued

Price to Book

1.00

EPS (TTM)

$3.29

Price to Sales

3.21

Beta

1.14

Similar volatility to market

How is CFG valued relative to its earnings and growth?
Citizens Financial Group Inc. trades at a P/E ratio of 16.31, which is near the market average of approximately 20, suggesting the market views it as fairly valued relative to its earnings. Looking ahead, the forward P/E of 10.65 is lower than the current P/E, indicating analysts expect earnings to grow over the next year. The PEG ratio of 0.26 suggests the stock may be undervalued relative to its growth rate.
What is CFG's risk profile compared to the market?
With a beta of 1.14, Citizens Financial Group Inc. is roughly as volatile as the market, moving in line with broad market trends. This moderate beta suggests the stock offers market-level returns without excessive volatility. The price-to-book ratio of 1.00 indicates the stock trades below its accounting value, which could signal value or distress.

Performance & Growth

Profit Margin

22.10%

Operating Margin

29.60%

Return on Equity

6.48%

Return on Assets

0.73%

Revenue Growth (YoY)

5.20%

Earnings Growth (YoY)

17.90%

How profitable and efficient is CFG's business model?
Citizens Financial Group Inc. achieves a profit margin of 22.10%, meaning it retains $22.10 from every $100 in revenue after all expenses. This is an impressive margin, indicating strong pricing power and efficient cost management that allows the company to generate substantial profits. The operating margin of 29.60% reveals how efficiently the company runs its core business operations before interest and taxes. With ROE at 6.48% and ROA at 0.73%, the company achieves moderate returns on invested capital.
What are CFG's recent growth trends?
Citizens Financial Group Inc.'s revenue grew by 5.20% year-over-year, showing steady progress in growing the business. This positive trajectory indicates the company maintains competitive positioning in its markets. Earnings increased by 17.90% year-over-year, outpacing revenue growth through improved margins. These growth metrics should be evaluated against BANKS - REGIONAL industry averages for proper context.

Dividend Information

Dividend Per Share

$1.68

Dividend Yield

3.15%

Ex-Dividend Date

Jul 31, 2025

Dividend Date

Aug 14, 2025

What dividend income can investors expect from CFG?
Citizens Financial Group Inc. offers a dividend yield of 3.15%, paying $1.68 per share annually. This above-average yield of 2-4% provides meaningful income while still allowing the company to reinvest for growth. It compares favorably to the S&P 500 average and offers competitive returns versus bonds in the current rate environment. To receive the next dividend, shares must be purchased before the ex-dividend date of Jul 31, 2025.
How reliable is CFG's dividend for long-term investors?
The dividend sustainability can be assessed through the payout ratio - Citizens Financial Group Inc. pays $1.68 per share in dividends against earnings of $3.29 per share, resulting in a payout ratio of 51.06%. This balanced payout between 30-60% suggests a sustainable dividend policy that allows both shareholder returns and business reinvestment. The dividend appears well-covered by earnings. The next dividend payment is scheduled for Aug 14, 2025.

Company Size & Market

Market Cap

$23.1B

Revenue (TTM)

$7.21B

Revenue/Share (TTM)

$16.39

Shares Outstanding

431.35M

Book Value/Share

$53.43

Asset Type

Common Stock

What is CFG's market capitalization and position?
Citizens Financial Group Inc. has a market capitalization of $23.1B, classifying it as a large-cap stock ($10B-$200B). Large-caps are typically industry leaders with established business models, offering a balance of stability and growth potential. They often provide dividend income and are core holdings in institutional portfolios. With 431.35M shares outstanding, the company's ownership is relatively concentrated. As a participant in the BANKS - REGIONAL industry, it competes with other firms in this sector.
How does CFG's price compare to its book value?
Citizens Financial Group Inc.'s book value per share is $53.43, while the current stock price is $50.43, resulting in a price-to-book (P/B) ratio of 0.94. Trading below book value can indicate the market perceives challenges ahead, or it might represent a value opportunity if the assets are quality and earnings can recover. Value investors often screen for P/B ratios below 1.0. As a common stock, this represents equity ownership with voting rights.

Analyst Ratings

Analyst Target Price

$58.15

15.31% upside potential

Analyst Recommendations

Strong Buy

4

Buy

11

Hold

5

Sell

0

Strong Sell

0

How reliable are analyst predictions for CFG?
20 analysts cover CFG with 75% recommending buy/strong buy ratings. Analyst predictions have mixed reliability - studies show consensus rarely beats market returns consistently. The strong bullish consensus may already be priced in. The consensus target of $58.15 implies 15.3% upside, but targets are often adjusted to follow price moves rather than predict them.
What is the Wall Street consensus on CFG?
Current analyst recommendations:4 Strong Buy, 11 Buy, 5 Hold, 00The bullish tilt suggests optimism about future prospects, though investors should conduct independent research.Remember that analyst opinions often lag price movements and can be influenced by investment banking relationships.

Fundamentals last updated: Oct 1, 2025, 06:45 AM

Active Alerts

No active alerts for this stock.

Be the first to set up an alert for CFG and get notified when the price changes.

Citizens Financial Group Inc. (CFG) Stock Analysis 2025: Complete Investment Guide

The Regional Bank That Learned From 2023's Crisis

March 2023 brought regional banking to its knees. Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and First Republic collapsed within weeks as depositors fled and commercial real estate valuations cratered. Yet Citizens Financial Group, one of America's 15 largest banks with $220 billion in assets, weathered the storm remarkably well. The secret? Bruce Van Saun, CEO since 2013, had spent the previous decade quietly diversifying away from the traditional regional bank playbook of commercial real estate lending and interest rate arbitrage.

Van Saun's strategic repositioning accelerated in 2024-2025. In April 2025, he promoted Brendan Coughlin to President, giving him oversight of Consumer Banking, Citizens Private Bank, and Wealth divisions. Four months later, Van Saun recruited Aunoy Banerjee from Barclays as CFO, bringing investment banking financial discipline to a regional bank platform. The message to investors: Citizens is building a diversified financial services franchise focused on high-net-worth customers who generate fee income, not just a loan portfolio vulnerable to credit cycles. With Citizens Private Bank now managing $8.7 billion in deposits and $5.2 billion in assets, the strategy is working—creating a defensive revenue mix that differentiates Citizens from peers still dependent on commercial lending.

Business Model & Competitive Moat

Citizens operates three core segments: Consumer Banking (retail deposits, mortgages, auto loans), Commercial Banking (middle-market lending, treasury services), and Citizens Private Bank (wealth management for high-net-worth individuals). The company serves approximately 4.6 million customers across 11 states in the Northeast and Midwest, with particular strength in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.

The competitive moat comes from three sources: First, decades-old customer relationships and physical branch networks in affluent regions create switching costs—wealthy clients don't easily move their entire banking relationship. Second, Citizens Private Bank's integration of banking, lending, and wealth management under one roof provides convenience that standalone wealth advisors or pure commercial banks can't match. Third, the $220 billion balance sheet allows Citizens to offer jumbo mortgages, business credit lines, and trust services that smaller competitors can't underwrite. However, this moat is modest—Citizens competes with both larger national banks (JPMorgan, Bank of America) and regional peers (M&T Bank, KeyCorp) in most markets. The wealth management pivot aims to strengthen the moat by creating stickier, fee-based relationships that survive economic downturns better than loan portfolios.

Financial Performance

Citizens demonstrated resilience through the 2023-2024 regional banking crisis:

  • •Asset Base: $220.1B in total assets as of March 2025, maintaining stability while peers faced deposit flight
  • •Private Bank Growth: Citizens Private Bank reached $8.7B in high-quality deposits and $5.2B in assets under management, up significantly YoY
  • •Strong Q3 Earnings: Beat expectations in Q3 2024, driving dividend increase and signaling confidence in capital adequacy
  • •Deposit Quality: Focus on high-net-worth customers provides stickier deposits less prone to rate-chasing behavior seen in 2023
  • •Revenue Diversification: Growing fee income from wealth management and private banking reduces reliance on net interest margin

Growth Catalysts

  • •Wealth Transfer Wave: $84 trillion in assets transferring to next generation over next two decades creates massive opportunity for private banking services
  • •High-Net-Worth Migration: Affluent individuals moving from California/New York to Florida/Texas creates new markets for Citizens Private Bank expansion
  • •Fee Income Expansion: Brendan Coughlin's promotion signals accelerated investment in wealth management, which generates recurring fees less volatile than lending income
  • •Commercial Real Estate Normalization: As CRE market stabilizes in 2025-2026, Citizens' conservative underwriting should result in lower-than-peer credit losses
  • •M&A Opportunities: Regional bank consolidation creates potential for accretive acquisitions of smaller banks or wealth advisory firms at distressed valuations

Risks & Challenges

  • •Commercial Real Estate Exposure: Like all regional banks, Citizens has CRE loan exposure; office market weakness could drive credit losses if remote work persists
  • •Interest Rate Sensitivity: Net interest margin compresses if Fed cuts rates aggressively, pressuring profitability despite wealth management diversification
  • •Regulatory Burden: Banks above $100B in assets face enhanced regulatory scrutiny and capital requirements, limiting ROE potential
  • •Deposit Competition: High-yield savings accounts from online banks (Ally, Marcus) and money market funds continue attracting depositors with 5%+ rates
  • •Execution Risk: Successfully scaling private banking requires recruiting top wealth advisors from competitors—expensive and uncertain

Competitive Landscape

Citizens competes in an increasingly bifurcated banking market. National giants like JPMorgan Chase ($3.9T assets), Bank of America ($3.2T), and Wells Fargo ($1.9T) dominate with scale, technology investment, and nationwide presence. Regional banks including Truist ($535B), PNC ($560B), and U.S. Bancorp ($675B) sit between nationals and Citizens. Below Citizens, smaller regionals like M&T Bank ($205B), Fifth Third ($214B), and KeyCorp ($187B) compete directly in overlapping markets.

Bruce Van Saun's strategy acknowledges that Citizens can't out-scale the nationals or compete on cost with digital-only banks. Instead, the focus is premium segments: high-net-worth individuals who value relationship banking, white-glove service, and integrated wealth management. This positions Citizens against private banks like Northern Trust ($170B) and wealth managers like UBS rather than pure deposit-gathering competitors. The risk is that JPMorgan's Private Bank and Bank of America's Merrill Lynch already dominate the ultra-high-net-worth segment, leaving Citizens competing for the $5M-50M liquid net worth segment—large enough to be attractive but competitive enough to require premium service that's expensive to deliver.

Who Is This Stock Suitable For?

Perfect For

  • ✓Income investors seeking regional bank dividends with recent increase signaling stability
  • ✓Value investors wanting financial sector exposure with wealth management upside optionality
  • ✓Defensive investors preferring diversified revenue (fees + interest income) over pure lending exposure
  • ✓Regional bank investors seeking above-average asset quality and conservative underwriting

Less Suitable For

  • ✗Growth investors seeking technology or secular growth stories (banking is mature, competitive)
  • ✗Aggressive investors wanting high-beta plays (regional banks trade with economic cycles, not explosive growth)
  • ✗CRE skeptics concerned about office market exposure across regional bank portfolios
  • ✗Short-term traders (catalysts play out over quarters/years as wealth business scales)

Investment Thesis

Citizens Financial Group offers a differentiated regional bank play at a time when the sector faces structural headwinds. Bruce Van Saun's decade-long transformation from traditional commercial lender to diversified financial services provider creates defensive characteristics rare among regional peers. The Citizens Private Bank segment—now at $8.7 billion in deposits and $5.2 billion in assets under management—provides recurring fee income that doesn't disappear during credit cycles. Brendan Coughlin's promotion to President signals accelerated investment in this higher-margin business.

The investment case rests on execution: can Citizens successfully recruit elite wealth advisors, scale the private bank to $15-20 billion in AUM, and maintain deposit quality while peers struggle? The recent dividend increase suggests management confidence despite macro uncertainty. Valuation remains reasonable compared to nationals that trade at premium multiples. Key risks are commercial real estate credit quality (unknowable until office market stabilizes) and whether wealth management can scale profitably (expensive talent, intense competition from JPMorgan/BoA). For patient investors seeking income plus moderate capital appreciation, Citizens offers better risk/reward than peers still dependent on CRE lending. But this isn't a growth story—it's a defensive repositioning that could drive steady mid-single-digit returns if executed well.

Conclusion

Hold for current owners, cautious Buy for regional bank investors seeking defensive positioning. Citizens' wealth management pivot differentiates it from CRE-heavy peers, but execution risk remains. The stock won't double—but it offers income (dividend recently increased), moderate appreciation potential, and lower credit risk than comparable regional banks. Suitable for conservative portfolios wanting financial sector exposure without pure-play lending risk. Key milestones: quarterly updates on Citizens Private Bank AUM growth and CRE loan performance. If private bank reaches $10B AUM by end-2025 while maintaining asset quality, upgrade to Buy. If CRE losses accelerate or wealth advisor recruiting stalls, downgrade to Sell. For now, a well-managed regional bank executing a sensible strategy in challenging times.
Bull Case
$52 (30% upside) - Private bank scales to $15B+ AUM, CRE losses minimal, successful M&A of wealth advisors
Base Case
$43 (8% upside) - Steady private bank growth, manageable CRE losses, dividend maintained, modest multiple expansion
Bear Case
$32 (20% downside) - CRE losses spike, wealth management scaling struggles, net interest margin compression, dividend cut

Stay Ahead of the Market with Citizens Financial Group Inc. Alerts

Set up price alerts for Citizens Financial Group Inc. and get notified instantly when the price hits your target. Never miss an important price movement again.