As always, the quarterly earnings were kicked off by the major large-cap money center banks, and as expected they all delivered solid earnings reports. The team at Jefferies remains very positive on the four top companies that beat earnings expectations and, most importantly, provided reassuring forward guidance. Net interest income, or NII, across all banks was impressive, and with the debate over where interest rates will be as we move through the rest of 2026 remaining a wild card for all the financial giants, the second half of the year could prove interesting.

The Jefferies team had this to say when discussing the results:

We’re out with our thoughts following large-cap bank earnings. We highlight that results were largely positive, with all four banks beating Earnings Per Share and Pre-Provision Net Revenue expectations. Loan growth came in modestly above expectations, while deposit trends were generally stable. NII growth remained healthy, supported by strong balance sheet momentum, deposit growth, and fixed-rate asset repricing. Fee income remained constructive, benefiting from strength in payments, treasury services, securities services, wealth management, and transaction banking. Meanwhile, capital markets were a standout performer, driven by robust trading activity, improving investment banking fees, and healthy client engagement.

Here are the four dividend-paying financial giants that Jefferies rates as Buy.

Bank of America

Warren Buffett has trimmed his position over the past two years and sold a 50 million shares in the fourth quarter. This quality financial giant remains an exceptional long-term holding with a solid 1.89% dividend yield. Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) is a bank holding company that reported impressive Q2 results. Berkshire Hathaway owns 513,624,165 shares, which is 7.9% of the portfolio and 7.2% of the float. Berkshire did lower its Bank of America position in Q1 2026, but only modestly. According to the Q1 2026 13F filing, it was reduced by just 0.71%, a very small cut compared to other positions.

The Jefferies analyst noted this:

Bank of America delivered a strong quarter, with core EPS and Pre-Provision Net Revenue ahead of expectations, driven primarily by strength in investment banking and sales & trading. While NII was largely in line, management reiterated growth at the upper end of 6-8% and raised FY26 operating leverage guide to 300-400 bp from >200 bp previously following 2Q’s POL of 640 bp. The return on tangible common equity of 17.0% vs our 16.1% reinforces the earnings power of the franchise.

Its segments include:

• Consumer Banking, which offers a range of credit, banking, and investment products and services to consumers and small businesses.
• Global Wealth & Investment Management (GWIM) comprises two businesses: Merrill Wealth Management, which offers tailored solutions to meet clients’ needs through a comprehensive suite of investment management, brokerage, banking, and retirement products. Bank of America Private Bank provides comprehensive wealth management solutions.
• Global Banking offers a range of lending-related products and services, including integrated working capital management and treasury solutions, as well as underwriting and advisory services.
• Global Markets offers sales and trading services, as well as research services, to institutional clients across fixed income, credit, currency, commodity, and equity markets.

The Jefferies price target is $75.

Citigroup

This money-center giant pays a solid 1.64% and could be poised to deliver continued upside. Citigroup (NYSE:C) is a global diversified financial services holding company. The Jefferies team had this to say when discussing the second-quarter results:

Citi delivered a strong quarter, with core earnings per share and pre-provision net revenue ahead of expectations, driven by stronger-than-expected NII, Markets, and Investment Bank results. Still, the expense outlook was worse than expected, as the return on tangible common equity guide for FY26 was reiterated at 10-11% despite 1H’26 ROTCE trending at 13%. Revenue outperformance could be offset by $5 billion of spending pulled forward that was originally planned for ’27/’28 related to US Card, growth, and productivity initiatives.

The company’s segments include:

• Services
• Markets
• Banking
• Wealth
• U.S. Personal Banking (USPB)

The Services segment includes Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS) and securities services. TTS provides an integrated suite of tailored cash management, trade, and working capital solutions to multinational corporations, financial institutions, and public sector organizations.

The Markets segment provides corporate, institutional, and public-sector clients worldwide with a full range of sales and trading services across equities, foreign exchange, rates, spread products, and commodities.

The Banking segment includes investment banking, which supports client capital-raising needs to help strengthen and grow their businesses.

The Wealth segment includes Private Bank, Wealth at Work, and Citigold, and provides financial services to a range of client segments.

The USPB segment includes branded cards and retail services.

Jefferies has a $165 target price for the shares.

Goldman Sachs

The white-glove banking giant delivered exceptional results and pays a 1.47% dividend. Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) is a global financial institution that delivers a range of financial services to a large and diversified client base, including corporations, financial institutions, governments, and individuals.

The Jefferies team said this:

Following 2Q26 results, our EPS estimates for the second half of 2026 and FY2027 increase by 9% and 8%, respectively, following a record 1H26 in both markets and advisory. Record equities revenues, all-time-high prime balances, accelerating large-cap M&A, and a five-year-high backlog provide strong support for continued earnings momentum.

Its segments include:

• Global Banking & Markets
• Asset & Wealth Management
• Platform Solutions

The Global Banking & Markets segment offers a range of services, including financing, advisory services, risk distribution, and hedging for its institutional and corporate clients. It facilitates client transactions and makes markets in fixed income, equity, currency, and commodity products.

The Asset & Wealth Management segment manages assets and offers investment products across all asset classes to a diverse client base. It also provides investment and wealth advisory solutions.

The Platform Solutions segment includes consumer platforms, such as partnerships offering credit cards and point-of-sale financing, as well as transaction banking and other platform businesses.

Jefferies has set a price target of $1,299 for the shares.

Wells Fargo

With some difficult years in the rearview mirror, this bank could be one of the best values in the financial sector, and pays a 2.11% dividend. Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) is a financial services company. The company provides a diversified set of banking, investment, and mortgage products and services, as well as consumer and commercial finance, to individuals, businesses, and institutions.

Jefferies analysts noted this:

WFC posted a headline beat on strong fee income and continued expense discipline, and reiterated its FY26 NII and expense guidance. Despite a solid quarter, shares traded lower amid a net interest margin outlook that fell short of expectations and rising deposit costs. NIM compressed as expected, down 4 bp, in line with the guide, but better-than-expected AEA growth drove a modest NII beat. IB deposit costs rose 9 bps Q/Q, with continued pressure expected in 2H’26 as IB outpaces NIB growth.

Wells Fargo operates through four segments:

• Consumer Banking and Lending
• Commercial Banking
• Corporate and Investment Banking
• Wealth & Investment Management

The company provides consumer financial products and services, including checking and savings accounts, credit and debit cards, and auto, residential mortgage, and small business lending.

In addition, the company offers financial planning, private banking, investment management, and fiduciary services. It also provides financial solutions to businesses through products and services, including traditional commercial loans and lines of credit, letters of credit, asset-based lending and leasing, trade financing, treasury management, and investment banking services.

The Jefferies target price is $100.

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Shares of Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) are down 8% to $903.50 in early trading Wednesday, dragging the broader semiconductor complex lower. The selloff is spilling into Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD), and Marvell Technology (NASDAQ:MRVL), which are lower by 6%, 6%, and 7%, respectively.

The iShares Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SOXX) is off 4% to $546.72, reflecting a sector-wide risk-off tone. Micron shares had been trading near record highs after a blowout June earnings print, so today’s pullback follows a powerful rally.

The main catalyst appears to be a Micron-specific memory story. Barron’s reported that Micron shares fell as competition from Chinese memory-chip makers looks set to intensify, framing a longer-term threat to the DRAM and NAND business.

China Memory Competition Fuels the Selloff

Chinese producer ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) has been climbing the DRAM ranks quickly. CXMT has become the world’s fourth-largest DRAM producer, and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is testing CXMT chips for devices sold in China. Furthermore, Nio (NYSE:NIO) recently disclosed a $23.3 million investment in the Chinese memory maker.

That signal of gathering Chinese scale threatens Micron’s pricing power in commodity DRAM even as HBM4 keeps the AI story intact. The narrative is framed as analysis, not a confirmed near-term revenue hit, but it lands on a stock that seems to already have been priced for perfection.

Why Intel, AMD, and Marvell Are Falling in Sympathy

Intel focuses on CPUs and foundry, AMD on CPUs and GPUs, and Marvell on custom silicon and networking. None of the three compete in DRAM or NAND, so today’s action in Intel stock, AMD stock, and Marvell stock reads as sector-wide de-risking rather than a China-memory hit to their fundamentals.

Profit-taking is a big piece of the story. Intel stock is up 177% year to date, AMD shares are up 142%, and Marvell stock is up 145%. Sector-level positioning has repeatedly hit this group together, and today’s tape looks similar.

The SOXX ETF holds all four names and is a common vehicle for sector exposure. Traders should note the concentration risk in a handful of mega-caps within their sector allocation. The fund isn’t leveraged, so exposure moves one-for-one with the underlying basket.

Weighing the Bull and Bear Case on Micron

The bull case for Micron remains anchored in AI memory demand. The company delivered FQ3 2026 revenue of $41.46 billion, up 346% year over year, with non-GAAP EPS of $25.11 and GAAP gross margin of 85%. Micron’s guidance for FQ4 called for revenue of $50 billion, plus or minus $1 billion.

The bear case rests on memory cyclicality, the Chinese competitive overhang, and a rich valuation after the run-up. Micron stock is up 217% year to date. Traders sizing their positions here can expect volatility to stay elevated and may consider trimming their exposure into strength.

The prediction markets echo the near-term caution. Polymarket odds put a 99% probability on Micron closing lower on July 15, and the crowd assigns 72% odds to the stock touching $840 in July.

What to Watch Now

Traders can watch for whether Micron holds $905 and whether the SOXX ETF’s bounce attempts gain traction. Any confirming reporting on Chinese memory capacity, or a rebuttal from HBM customers, could reset the tone quickly.

TD Cowen’s $1,600 price target on Micron and Citigroup‘s (NYSE:C) upside catalyst watch on stronger second-half DRAM pricing remain intact for now. Market watchers can look for whether any sell-side desk cuts numbers on the China angle, with Micron’s next scheduled earnings being the key forward catalyst for the memory group.

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Citigroup (NYSE:C) stock is down 4.7% to $134 Tuesday afternoon, a sharp sell-the-news reversal after the bank beat every analyst estimate for the second quarter. Citigroup shares had traded higher earlier in the session before turning red.

Zoom out, though, and Citigroup stock is still the clear year-to-date leader of the big three. Citigroup stock is up 13.75% in 2026, ahead of Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) stock at up 9.34% and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) stock at down 8.82%.

All three banks reported strong Q2 2026 results powered by an AI-driven trading and dealmaking boom. Yet, the reaction across the group is mixed to negative, with Wells Fargo stock down 3.32% to $84.76 and Bank of America shares up only 1.29% to $60.27 after touching a record high earlier.

Citigroup Delivers a Blowout, Stock Reverses Anyway

Citigroup posted Q2 2026 earnings of $3.15 per share on $24.8 billion in revenue, marking the company’s highest revenue in a decade. The Street had expected about $2.74 in earnings per share, and record equity-trading revenue drove the upside.

Citigroup’s management paired the report with capital-return firepower, announcing a $30 billion buyback and a 12% dividend increase. That builds on the earlier hike from $0.56 to $0.60 per quarter that Citigroup pushed through last year.

The bear case that took over on Tuesday afternoon is straightforward. Citigroup’s CFO acknowledged that its equities franchise still trails larger rivals, and Citigroup stock now trades at a 16x P/E ratio. That’s the richest multiple of the three, which sets a higher bar even after a genuine beat.

Bank of America and Wells Fargo Also Beat, With Different Reactions

Bank of America reported EPS of $1.21 on revenue of $31.6 billion, its fifth consecutive quarterly EPS beat. The company’s Global Markets revenue jumped 34% to $8.02 billion, with equities sales and trading up 70% and investment banking fees up 50%.

CEO Brian Moynihan called it “one of our strongest quarters to date” and struck an upbeat tone on financing the AI buildout. Bank of America stock trades at a 15x P/E ratio, cheaper than Citigroup but richer than Wells Fargo.

Wells Fargo, meanwhile, posted EPS of $2, with investment banking fees up 35% and return on tangible common equity of 17.7%. The bank also announced a buyback and a planned dividend raise, but CEO Charlie Scharf’s “carefully deploying capital” tone weighed on Wells Fargo shares. Wells Fargo stock trades at a 13x P/E ratio, the cheapest of the group.

So Is Citigroup Actually Outperforming?

The short answer is yes, at least on the year-to-date scoreboard. Citigroup’s 13.75% run tops Bank of America and doubles down on the turnaround story CEO Jane Fraser has been selling, with 65.9% gains over the past year backing it up.

The nuance is that Citigroup carries the richest valuation and the smallest markets franchise of the three, so any wobble in trading or dealmaking hits harder. Tuesday’s reversal is a reminder that leadership at the top of a rally leaves less margin for error, and investors should consider sizing their positions accordingly.

For readers who prefer a broader lens, the Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSEARCA:XLF) offers diversified exposure to the big banks and the wider financials complex in one fund. That can smooth out days like this one, when three earnings beats produced three different market reactions.

What to Watch Next

The immediate cue is whether Citigroup stock can stabilize into Tuesday’s close after giving back ground from an earlier intraday high. Follow-through from the $8 billion in Bank of America capital returns and Wells Fargo’s guidance on its dividend plan could set the tone for the rest of bank earnings week.

Keep an eye on how the group trades over the next few sessions. If Citigroup holds most of its year-to-date lead through the JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) and regional bank earnings reports later this week, the outperformance thesis could remain intact even after a rough Tuesday.

The post Citigroup Is Up 14% This Year: Is It Outperforming Other Bank Stocks Like Wells Fargo and Bank of America? appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

Devin Ryan, Senior Research Analyst at Citizens, laid out a bullish setup for big banks on Monday’s CNBC segment ahead of Q2 earnings. He said: “Tomorrow is going to be, I think, a really good day to kick things off for the top six banks. We’re looking for about 25% year-over-year earnings growth.”

With Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo all reporting before the open on Tuesday, July 14, and Morgan Stanley following on Wednesday, July 15, the setup is concentrated and driven by the revival of capital markets along with commercial lending.

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley Could Lead the Bank Earnings Boom

Ryan’s core call is that the biggest upside among the big banks could sit with the most capital-markets-levered franchises. “The companies that are going to do the best are probably the ones more exposed to capital markets. So SpaceX IPO, M&A announcements are up 50% year-to-date through the first half. And so Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley probably going to be standouts. We’re looking for almost 40% earnings growth out of both of those.”

Goldman Sachs Is Built for the Capital Markets Revival

Q1 2026 validated the direction. Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) posted EPS of $17.55 on $17.23 billion in revenue, with investment banking fees of $2.84 billion up 48% and advisory revenues nearly doubling at $1.49 billion, up 89%. CEO David Solomon said, “Goldman Sachs delivered very strong performance for our shareholders this quarter, even as market conditions became more volatile” in the firm’s Q1 release.

Morgan Stanley Enters Earnings With Record Momentum

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) delivered its own record. Ted Pick’s team reported $20.58 billion in revenue, EPS of $3.43, ROTCE of 27.1%, and advisory revenue up 74% to $978 million. Ryan’s near 40% earnings growth expectation follows Q1 net income growth of 29%.

Wall Street’s Rebound Is Lifting America’s Biggest Banks

Ryan sees the capital markets tailwind lifting the rest of the group. JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) opened 2026 with EPS of $5.94, up 17%, record Markets revenue of $11.6 billion, and advisory fees up 82% to $1.27 billion. Jamie Dimon flagged “increased fiscal stimulus, the benefits of deregulation, AI-driven capital investment and the Fed’s asset purchases” as tailwinds.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) grew EPS 25% year-over-year to $1.11, with equities trading up 30% and investment banking fees up 21%. Citigroup (NYSE:C) delivered net income up 42% and Markets revenue crossing $7 billion for the first time, with equity markets up 39%. Wells Fargo grew EPS 15%, with CIB Markets up 19% and equity capital markets share expanding.

The Next Banking Opportunity May Be Hiding Outside the Mega Banks

Capital markets stocks were up nearly 50% last year and up 20% in 2026 to date, with the S&P 500 up 15% in the second quarter. Goldman shares are up 21.19% year-to-date, and Morgan Stanley is up 26.55%. Ryan’s cautious because: “We think a lot is actually baked in. And so we’re looking for areas where there’s probably more upside. We still think there’s areas of capital markets like middle market sponsors. Private equity still have quite a way to recover.”

On commercial lending re-acceleration, he pointed to two forces. “So data centers is a big piece of the reacceleration, but then also just capital markets turning back on. So as you think about [the] M&A market that’s been dormant, starting to get back to something more normal that leads to lending opportunities into those deals.”

Key Takeaways

The major banks enter Q2 earnings with strong momentum across investment banking, trading, and commercial lending. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley may deliver the strongest results because of their greater exposure to the capital markets recovery, with Ryan expecting earnings growth of nearly 40% from both firms.

Expectations are already high, however, and much of the rebound may be reflected in mega-bank share prices. The next opportunities could emerge among middle-market firms and other lenders that stand to benefit as private equity activity, M&A, and data center investment recover. A broader market pullback or slowdown in AI-related spending remains the clearest risk to that outlook.

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Fundstrat’s Tom Lee returned to CNBC last week with a specific call: after a soft June, July should mark a turn higher for U.S. stocks. His argument rests on a simple observation. Even with the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA: SPY) sitting up 9.22% year to date through July 2, the market’s price-to-earnings multiple has actually compressed since January, giving earnings room to catch up and multiples room to expand.

The setup matters because June was choppy. SPY finished down 1.95% over the past month, and the CBOE Volatility Index touched 19.95 on June 25 before easing back to 15.56 by July 6. Lee’s thesis is that the reset in sentiment created the conditions for the next leg up.

The valuation math behind Lee’s July call

Speaking with Scott Wapner on CNBC’s Closing Bell, Lee said “the market’s P/E is actually lower now than it was in January by 1.1 full turn,” and he expects second quarter earnings to surprise to the upside again. That combination, higher earnings against a lower multiple, is what he sees as the fuel for a rally.

He put a concrete number on it. “8,000 would be roughly 20 times the 2026 earnings of 400. I think that’s a low estimate. I think the P/E multiple could be 22 or better. So that would be, you know, even 8,400, 8,800 kind of would be the upside into year-end,” Lee said. In other words, if S&P 500 companies deliver on the earnings side, he sees a path to roughly 8,000 to 8,800 by year-end.

That framing echoes what other strategists have been laying out. Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) flagged AI investment and a stable economy as key drivers of S&P 500 earnings growth in late June, and Citigroup (NYSE: C) raised its year-end S&P 500 target to 8,100 on the same AI-driven earnings thesis. Skeptics such as Seeking Alpha’s Cory Cramer have countered that the projected 27% earnings growth for 2026 is “largely misleading” and reliant on accounting effects.

Why underperforming managers could power the rally

Lee also pointed to a positioning tailwind. “Only 23% of fund managers are beating the large-cap growth index. That’s the lowest number in almost five years,” he said, arguing that the performance gap will force portfolio managers to chase gains and buy dips in July. Institutional flows already show that behavior taking shape: SPY absorbed a $24.95 billion net inflow during a down week in late June, and technical analysts flagged a potential “golden cross” formation on the ETF.

The August through October warning

Lee’s bullish July view carries a caveat. He told CNBC he expects “something that might feel like a bear market” between now and year-end, driven by two catalysts: the market testing the new Fed chair’s inflation framework, and a gradual unlock of SpaceX shares that could pressure liquidity. He drew a parallel to earlier in 2026, when a February to April drawdown of only 7% still felt like a bear market, and the VIX briefly reached 31.65 on March 27.

That is worth taking seriously. Benzinga reported that institutional investors are actively building put-spread collars on SPY and QQQ, and the CBOE SKEW index has been rising even as VIX drifts lower. Smart money is buying insurance for tail risk while riding the rally.

What to watch next

The immediate tests are Q2 earnings season, which will confirm or reject Lee’s upside surprise thesis, and Fed communications on the pace of any rate cuts after June payrolls came in soft. For readers who track prior 24/7 Wall St coverage, JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) has laid out a similar earnings-driven framework with a bull case around 8,900 by year-end, providing a useful benchmark for Lee’s numbers. The window Lee describes is narrow, and the second half looks bumpier than the first.

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Shares of Marathon Digital (NASDAQ:MARA) are up 18% in midday trading Thursday, changing hands at $14.27. The move puts Marathon Digital stock at the top of the crypto miner leaderboard on July 9, 2026, ahead of peers Riot Platforms (NASDAQ:RIOT), CleanSpark (NASDAQ:CLSK), and TeraWulf (NASDAQ:WULF), all of which are also higher.

The rally caps a volatile stretch for MARA stock in which double-digit moves aren’t unheard-of. Today’s snapback matters for traders watching MARA stock approach the $15 resistance level.

Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) provides a sector tailwind. BTC is trading near $62,915 in midday action after tagging an intraday high of $63,199, up 1.76% over the past 24 hours. That mild Bitcoin bid lifts the whole complex, but MARA stock is outpacing its peers on the day.

The Catalyst: A 1,200-Acre Bet on AI Power

The trigger is a fresh land deal. Marathon Digital announced its acquisition of a 1,200-acre powered land site in Matagorda County, Texas from HIF USA, developed with Starwood Digital Ventures. The property is expected to provide up to 1 GW of grid capacity by October 2027, scaling to 2 GW by April 2028.

Upon full energization, the site more than doubles Marathon Digital’s total power capacity to about 4.8 GW, factoring in the pending $1.5 billion Long Ridge acquisition, a 505 MW gas plant in Ohio. CEO Fred Thiel stated, “This transaction advances our strategy of securing strategically located infrastructure assets capable of supporting high-performance compute and bitcoin workloads.”

The deal cements Marathon Digital’s pivot from pure-play mining toward AI and high-performance computing infrastructure, joining a sector-wide race to convert power-rich sites into data center campuses. It also aligns MARA with peers racing to monetize gigawatt-scale power assets.

Peers Follow, but MARA Leads Today

The rally has spread to multiple cryptocurrency-focused stocks. Riot Platforms stock is up 5% to $22.22, and CleanSpark shares are higher by 6% to $13.11. Meanwhile, TeraWulf stock is up 4% to $23.73.

Riot Platforms brings AI credentials from $33.15 million in Q1 2026 data center revenue anchored by an Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) lease at its Rockdale, Texas campus. TeraWulf sits further along the transition, with HPC lease revenue at more than 60% of Q1 2026 total and total contracted revenue above $13 billion, largely backstopped by Alphabet‘s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google credit.

The YTD Picture Tells a Different Story

Today’s leader isn’t the frontrunner for 2026 so far. Marathon Digital stock is up 50.5% year to date (YTD), but that trails Riot Platforms at 72% YTD and TeraWulf at 106%. CleanSpark shares are up 29% YTD, keeping MARA in the middle of the pack.

Analyst positioning echoes the ranking. Citigroup (NYSE:C) raised its Riot Platforms stock price target to $28 with a Buy rating, and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) lifted TeraWulf to $72 with an Overweight rating on its $19 billion, 20-year Anthropic lease. Marathon Digital faced the opposite treatment, with Morgan Stanley cutting its MARA target to $5.50 from $7 at Underweight, though the Street average target sits at $18.54.

Bull vs. Bear on Marathon Digital

The bull case rests on scale. If Matagorda, Long Ridge, and the Starwood joint venture deliver as advertised, Marathon Digital could rival TeraWulf and Riot Platforms in gigawatt-class AI capacity within roughly two years. Marathon Digital’s 72.2 EH/s energized hashrate, up 33% year over year (YoY) keeps mining cash flow live during the transition, and the pending Long Ridge close targets positive EBITDA on day one.

The bear case centers on dilution and execution. MARA stock carries a beta of 5.37 and a 52-week range of $6.66 to $23.45. Critics point to executive compensation, equity raises, and the absence of a finalized hyperscaler tenant, something TeraWulf (Google, Core42, Fluidstack) and Riot Platforms (AMD) already have locked in. Furthermore, Marathon Digital’s Q1 2026 revenue of $174.6 million missed the $184.21 million consensus estimate.

For sector-level context, the CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (NASDAQ:WGMI) holds MARA, RIOT, and CLSK, offering diversified exposure to cryptocurrency-mining businesses. The ETF isn’t leveraged, though crypto-miner funds remain highly volatile.

What to Watch

Investors can watch for whether today’s move holds into the close and whether Marathon Digital secures a hyperscaler anchor tenant for Matagorda or Long Ridge. Given the group’s high beta and direct crypto linkage, investors should consider keeping position sizes modest and treating any single-day rally as tactical rather than thesis-confirming.

Bitcoin’s next price move remains the swing factor for the whole cohort. A break back above $63,200 could extend the miner bounce into Friday, while a slip under $62,400 would likely take MARA, RIOT, CLSK, and WULF with it. The next scheduled catalyst is the group’s Q2 2026 earnings cycle, where Marathon Digital’s ability to translate power capacity into signed AI leases will be the key line for investors to track.

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On the June 10, 2026 episode of The Ramsey Show, a caller named Michelle from New York explained that after her father died in July, she discovered her 85-year-old widowed mother had accumulated roughly $45,000 in credit card debt across an Amex, a Citi Mastercard, and a Citi Visa. Her mother owns nothing. The house was transferred to the children in 2006. Social Security is the only income, and about $300 a month is left after fixed expenses. Three collectors are sending letters. American Express has already filed suit for $9,385.15.

Dave Ramsey’s response was blunt: “Citibank and Amex have screwed an 85-year-old widow. They issued her card at a high interest rate and she has no income but Social Security.” The stakes are concrete. Panic about a lawsuit can push families to drain their own savings to cover a parent’s card balance they have zero legal obligation to pay.

The verdict: Ramsey is right, and the mechanic is called judgment-proof

Two rules of federal and state law drive this case. First, debt is not inherited in the United States. When someone dies, creditors get paid from the estate. If the estate holds nothing, they get nothing. Adult children do not owe a parent’s credit card balance unless they cosigned or were joint account holders. Second, Social Security benefits cannot be garnished by commercial creditors. A credit card company can win a judgment and still collect zero dollars if the only income is Social Security and there are no assets to seize.

That combination is what Ramsey means by judgment-proof. As he put it: “You cannot garnish Social Security either. So sue away. She’s what we call judgment proof.” Amex can win the $9,385.15 case and still walk away empty-handed. Citi can send letters for years. Neither can force a fixed-income widow with no property to pay.

The lending economics matter. The average credit card APR is now 21.00% as of February 2026, in record territory. A $45,000 balance at that rate compounds by roughly $9,450 in interest in a single year, more than the entire Amex lawsuit amount. Issuing revolving credit at 21% to a customer whose only income is Social Security is a business model, not an accident.

Why settlement, not silence, is the smart move

Being judgment-proof means creditors cannot force payment. It does not mean the phone stops ringing or the lawsuit disappears from court records. That is why Ramsey pushed Michelle toward a negotiated settlement rather than doing nothing.

His specific math: offer roughly 10 cents on the dollar to make it go away. On the Amex suit, that is roughly $1,000 against the $9,385.15 claim. Amex knows the collection value of a judgment against a Social Security recipient is close to zero, so a lump-sum offer often clears the account. The family, not the mother, would fund the payment purely to end the hassle.

Two guardrails are non-negotiable. Get every settlement offer in writing before sending a dollar, and confirm the letter states the account will be reported as settled in full with no residual balance. Ramsey warned that collectors will say almost anything on a phone call. Share no bank account numbers, no Social Security number, and no details about the mother’s income beyond what a court filing already discloses.

The variable that changes the answer

The one factor that flips this analysis is whether the debtor has non-exempt assets or non-Social Security income. A widow with a paid-off house in her own name, a pension, an IRA distribution, or a part-time job is not judgment-proof. A creditor can put a lien on the house, levy a bank account holding pension deposits, or garnish wages up to state limits. In Michelle’s case the home moved to the children in 2006 and Social Security is the sole income, so the shield holds. Any change to that fact pattern (a small inheritance, a home in the mother’s name, a survivor annuity) shifts settlement leverage back toward the creditor.

What to do this week

1. Confirm the account structure. Pull statements for all three cards. If the mother is the sole account holder and no child cosigned, no heir owes the balance.
2. Answer the Amex lawsuit on time. Ignoring a summons produces a default judgment. Filing a response or hiring a consumer-debt attorney for a flat fee preserves settlement leverage.
3. Send written settlement offers. Start near 10% of each balance. Require a signed letter confirming the account is settled in full before any payment moves.
4. Close and shred every card. New borrowing with no ability to repay is where the moral obligation actually lives.
5. Document Social Security as the sole income. A one-page letter from the SSA showing the 2.8% 2026 COLA benefit amount often ends collection calls faster than any argument.

Ramsey’s language was harsh because the lending decision was. A creditor that hands a 21% card to a widow on Social Security is not owed a rescue from her children.

The post Dave Ramsey: “Citibank and Amex Have Screwed an 85-Year-Old Widow” With $45,000 in Credit Card Debt appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

For most of the post-2008 era, Oppenheimer’s Chris Kotowski was the guy telling you to keep buying the big banks. He waved off the 2011 eurozone panic, the 2016 energy blowup, COVID, and the 2022 rate hikes. On June 30, 2026, he flipped.

Kotowski cut Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), Bank of America, and Citigroup (NYSE:C) in a single note, with Goldman moving to Underperform from Perform. Oppenheimer simultaneously nudged investors toward Ares, Blackstone, and KKR, plus commercial names US Bancorp and PNC.

The math is what changed his mind. “I thought they were systematically undervalued. Now I think the opposite is the case, quite honestly,” Kotowski told CNBC. “The banks historically would trade around 70 to 75% relative P/E… the investment banks are 107%. So like a 50% premium to their historic valuations.” Commercial banks sit at 78%, which is closer to normal but still not cheap.

The price action confirms it. Goldman is up 16.16% year to date and 45.75% over the past year. Morgan Stanley is up 51.97% over twelve months. Citigroup has ripped 68.13%. The fundamentals justified some of that. Goldman posted Q1 2026 EPS of $17.55 with investment banking fees up 48% year over year to $2.84 billion, per its first-quarter release. Citi crossed $7 billion in Markets revenue for the first time. Great numbers. Priced in.

Why the yield curve argument is a red herring

Bulls have leaned on a steepening curve as the next leg for bank NII. Kotowski is not buying it. His point: banks like Bank of America are still enjoying tailwinds from ultra-low-coupon securities they bought five or six years ago rolling off and getting reinvested at higher yields. That mechanical benefit runs regardless of what the two-year does next.

The risk cuts the other way. BofA CEO Brian Moynihan warned that a 100 basis point decline in rates could shave $2 billion off net interest income. Meanwhile, Goldman’s CET1 ratio slipped to 12.5% from 14.3% as capital got returned and put to work. That is a lot of operating leverage right when the cycle looks late.

The Blackstone and KKR pitch on sale

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) is down 22.07% year to date. KKR (NYSE:KKR) is down 27.52%. Kotowski’s phrasing: “In the banks, you can, for the most part, take your money and run with impunity. And the alts are on sale.”

The drawdowns look painful until you look under the hood. Blackstone reported Q1 2026 AUM of $1.3 trillion, up 12% year over year, with $68.5 billion in quarterly inflows and fee related earnings up 23% to $1.55 billion. Perpetual capital, the long-duration base that pays fees regardless of exit windows, is now $539.7 billion, or 48% of Fee-Earning AUM.

KKR looks similar. Q1 adjusted EPS of $1.39 beat by 10.28%, management fees rose 30% to $1.19 billion, and LTM capital deployed hit a record $97.4 billion. The K-Series wealth vehicles nearly doubled AUM to $38 billion, which is the retail-access flywheel every alt manager is chasing.

Valuation reflects the beating. KKR now trades at a forward P/E of 15x versus a trailing 31x. Blackstone’s forward multiple sits at 19x. Both remain expensive in absolute terms, but if you believe fee-based, perpetual-capital compounders should trade at a premium to cyclical intermediaries, the spread just narrowed dramatically.

What Kotowski is really saying

The bear case on alts, private credit redemption caps at Apollo and Ares, the Bank of England’s stress test of 46 firms, Elizabeth Warren’s data-center inquiries, is real. But Kotowski is arguing that the market has already discounted those risks in the alt names while pricing the banks for perfection. He was right for 15 years about undervaluation, and now he sees it inverted.

The post The Analyst Who Loved Bank Stocks for 15 Years Just Flipped. Here’s What He’s Buying Instead appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

CFRA cut its rating on Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) stock to Hold on Tuesday, May 19, joining a parallel downgrade of Citigroup (NYSE:C) to Hold on the same day. The twin moves frame this as a sector posture shift rather than a Bank of America stock specific concern. For long-term investors, the analyst downgrade warrants a closer look, even as the bank’s underlying earnings power remains intact.

The call lands after a strong run in money-center banks and reflects a more cautious near-term stance on large diversified lenders. CFRA’s broader message: the easy money in the big bank trade may already be behind us.

The Analyst’s Case

CFRA’s caution lines up with the standard bear checklist for big banks late in a cycle: stretched valuations after a re-rating, questions around the net interest income trajectory, commercial real estate office exposure tail risk, and regulatory capital uncertainty. Bank of America itself has flagged that a 100 basis point rate decline could reduce NII by $2 billion over the next 12 months.

The parallel Citigroup downgrade reinforces that this is a top-down view. CFRA appears to be trimming exposure to the group rather than singling out one franchise.

Company Snapshot

Bank of America is the second largest U.S. banking institution, servicing 10% of all American bank deposits. Q1 2026 results were robust: EPS of $1.11, revenue of $30.27 billion, and net income up 17% year over year.

Capital return is accelerating, with $9.3 billion returned to shareholders in Q1 via buybacks and dividends. The bank trades at a trailing P/E ratio of 13x and a forward P/E ratio of 12x, with a 2% dividend yield.

Why the Move Matters Now

Bank of America stock is down 8% year to date, even as one-year returns sit at +13%. Citigroup stock, by contrast, has surged 58% over the past year, making the sector re-rating argument easier to defend.

The analyst price target cut narrative here is more about positioning than fundamentals. Wall Street consensus still skews bullish, with 22 buy-equivalent ratings against 3 holds and a consensus target of $62.98.

What It Means for Your Portfolio

The bull case for Bank of America stock remains durable: consistent earnings power, 11 consecutive quarters of sequential deposit growth, strong trading and investment banking momentum, and meaningful capital return. Prudent investors holding BAC shares for income and long-term compounding may view this analyst downgrade as a yellow light.

However, the risks CFRA implies are real: rate sensitivity, CRE office exposure, and a valuation that no longer offers the cushion it did a year ago. Sizing positions modestly and watching for whether net interest income guidance holds through Q2 2026 are reasonable steps.

The takeaway on Bank of America stock: the big bank trade may simply be maturing, and the easy gains may be in the rearview. If so, then the wise move now is to research, not react.

The post Bank of America Cut to Hold by CFRA: Is the Big Bank Trade Running Out of Gas? appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

Pre-Market Stock Futures:

Futures are trading lower on Tuesday as the sell-off in technology stocks carried through to Monday and is headed down that road today. All of the major indices, except the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which closed 0.32% higher at 49,668, finished the day lower. The small-cap Russell 2000 was the big loser on Monday, closing down 0.63% at 2,775, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq closed lower by 0.51% at 26,090. The S&P 500, which made numerous new highs last week, was last seen at 7,403, down 0.07%. The same issues combined to create the weakness on Monday: worries about higher inflation, the ongoing war in Iran, where President Trump said he called off an imminent attack, and, of course, rising bond yields.

Treasury Bonds:

After a brutal beatdown last week, yields across the Treasury curve closed modestly lower as some buyers came in to examine the wreckage. With Wall Street legend Ed Yardeni boldly stating that the bond vigilantes will push yields higher if new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh doesn’t raise rates to combat mounting inflation at some point, the proverbial line in the sand has clearly been drawn. The 30-year bond closed the day at 5.13%, unchanged, and the benchmark 10-year note at 4.59%, also unchanged from Friday. 

Oil and Gas:

For the first time in over a week, pricing across the energy complex was flat to down, and one thing is for sure. The pressure is mounting on President Trump to wrap up the situation in Iran and reopen the Strait of Hormuz for energy transit. When the dust finally settled Monday, Brent Crude closed the day almot 1% at $108.20, while West Texas Intermediate was marginally higher at $101.30. Natural gas, which has been strong recently, closed the session at $3.02, up 2.13%, as the United States LNG production and sales are quickly becoming the backbone of the world’s gas supply. 

Gold:

After a rough end to last week, precious metals trended higher on Monday as investors bought into the recent weakness. While the same issues that have muddied the water for almost every asset class since the start of the war with Iran, gold and silver have started to put in a solid base at current trading levels, and could be poised for big moves higher when the Iran issues are resolved. The final trade for Gold was reported at $4,561, up 0.50%, while Silver was last seen at $77.40, up 2.06%. 

Crypto:

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports daily to identify new investment ideas for both investors and traders. Some of these daily analyst calls cover stocks to buy. Other calls cover stocks to sell or avoid. Remember that no single analyst call should ever be used as a basis to buy or sell a stock. 

Here are some of the top Wall Street analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen on Tuesday, May 19, 2026.  

Upgrades:

• American Tower (NYSE: AMT) was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Bernstein, which has a $207 target price for the shares.
• Assured Guaranty (NYSE: AGO) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS, with a $94 target price.
• Credicorp (NYSE: BAP) was raised to Buy from Hold at HSBC, with the target price for the stock bumped to $350 from $320.
• Jazz Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: JAZZ) was raised to Buy from Neutral at UBS, which launched the target price for the stock to $307 from $188.
• Stubhub Holdings (NYSE: STUB) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Guggenheim, which lifted the target price for the share to $12.50 from $8.50.

Downgrades:

• Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at CFRA, without a target price.
• Citigroup (NYSE: C) was also cut to Hold from Buy at CFRA, without a target price.
• CrowdStrike Holdings (NASDAQ: CRWD) was double downgraded to Sell from Buy at DZ Bank, with a $500 target price.
• Fortinet (NASDAQ: FTNT) was also double downgraded to Sell from Buy at DZ Bank, with a $125 target price.
• Hanover Insurance Group (NYSE: THG) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at BMO Capital, which bumped the target price for the stock to $203 from $194.

Initiations:

• Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ALNY) was initiated with a Buy rating at Citigroup, which has set a $380 price target for the shares.
• BioMarin Pharmaceutical (NASDAQ: BMRN) was initiated with a Buy rating at Citigroup with a $75 target price.
• Cemex SAB (NYSE: CX) was assumed with a Neutral rating at Grupo Santander with a $14 target price.
• X-Energy (NASDAQ: XE) was started with a Buy rating at UBS, with a $40 target. JPMorgan has an Overweight rating for the stock with a $38 target, while UBS has a Buy rating and a nd a $40 target price. The stock was a recent successful IPO, backed by Amazon and Ken Griffin from Citadel.
• Zeta Global Holdings (NYSE: ZETA) was initiated with a Buy rating at Bank of America, with a $24 target price objective.

The post Here Are Tuesday’s Top Wall Street Analyst Research Calls: American Tower, Citigroup, CrowdStrike, Fortinet, Hanover Insurance, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Stubhub, X-Energy, and More appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

The Virtus InfraCap U.S. Preferred Stock ETF (NYSEARCA:PFFA) sits at $21.62 heading into the back half of 2026, paying a 9.5% yield that has drawn income investors looking for something between bond coupons and common stock dividends. PFFA raised its monthly payout to $0.1725 per share for 2026, up from $0.17 in 2025, extending a string of uninterrupted monthly distributions that now spans seven years. That cash flow is what most PFFA holders own the fund for, and it is exactly what the next 12 months will pressure-test.

The fund is actively managed, holds 188 preferred securities, carries roughly $1.91 billion in assets, and applies modest leverage to juice its income. That structure has worked: in Q4 2025, PFFA returned roughly 1% on NAV against essentially flat (0.29%) for the S&P U.S. Preferred Stock Index. Year to date in 2026, however, the price is down a fraction of a percent, and the one-year total return on price alone is about 3%. The distribution is doing the heavy lifting, which is why the macro setup matters more than usual.

The Macro Factor: The Fed’s 2026 Cutting Path

Preferred stocks behave like long-duration credit, and PFFA’s leverage roughly doubles its sensitivity to short-term funding rates. The single most important variable for the next 12 months is how aggressively the Federal Reserve actually cuts in 2026, beyond what the market is already pricing in. Virtus’s own portfolio manager flagged in October 2024 that “Fed rate cuts should favor preferred stocks, which offer a risk profile between bonds and common stocks”, and Seeking Alpha’s February 2026 PFFA review explicitly tied the bull case to anticipated rate cuts and declining inflation in 2026.

What to watch concretely: the CME FedWatch tool’s implied path for the December 2026 FOMC meeting, and the Fed’s quarterly dot plot. A faster cutting cycle compresses PFFA’s borrowing costs on its leverage line while lifting the market price of fixed-rate preferreds it already owns. A stall, like 2023’s higher-for-longer surprise, would do the opposite. Check FedWatch weekly and the BLS CPI release monthly. In 2022, when the Fed went the other direction, preferred stock indexes fell roughly 18% on price, and PFFA’s leverage amplified the drawdown.

The Fund-Specific Factor: Leverage Meets Financial-Sector Concentration

PFFA’s edge and its risk are the same thing. The fund layers leverage on top of a portfolio dominated by bank and insurance preferreds from Citigroup, JPMorgan, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Apollo, and KKR, with growing real estate exposure. The roughly 3% expense ratio is steep, and it only pencils out if active sector rotation keeps outperforming passive preferred ETFs the way it did last quarter.

The signal to watch is credit stress at large U.S. banks: insider activity, dividend coverage, and any preferred deferral language in 10-Qs. The current news flow already shows PNC’s CEO and an EVP selling $14.8 million in shares over 90 days and Gabelli Funds trimming its Wells Fargo stake 13%. Check the FDIC Quarterly Banking Profile and each major holding’s earnings release. If bank net interest margins compress faster than PFFA’s funding costs drop, the leverage that powered 2025 outperformance flips into a headwind, and the distribution math gets tighter.

What to Track Through Year-End

Watch the December 2026 FedWatch probability of a sub-3.75% policy rate as the single cleanest read on PFFA’s tailwind. On the fund itself, watch the next semiannual holdings disclosure for any shift away from money-center bank preferreds toward real estate names, which would tell you the manager sees the financial-sector trade as played out.

The post The Fed’s 2026 Cutting Path Will Make or Break PFFA’s 9.5% Yield appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

Citigroup (NYSE:C) stock is getting fresh Wall Street validation this week, with three major firms raising their price targets following a blowout first quarter. Goldman Sachs, Truist, and Wells Fargo all moved their targets higher after Citi reported Q1 2026 EPS of $3.06 and revenue of $24.6 billion, up 14% year-over-year. The question for long-term investors: is the transformation story finally hitting its stride?

The numbers make a compelling case. Citigroup’s net income surged 42% year-over-year to $5.8 billion, and the Markets segment crossed $7 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time in a decade. For a bank that spent years in restructuring mode, that’s a meaningful signal the hard work is paying off.

The Analyst’s Case

Goldman Sachs analyst Richard Ramsden raised his price target on Citigroup to $151 from $137, maintaining a Buy rating, citing strong quarterly results that underscore continued momentum behind Citi’s core franchises and ongoing transformation success. That’s a vote of confidence not just in one quarter, but in the durability of the business model.

Truist analyst John McDonald lifted his Citigroup stock price target to $139 from $133, keeping a Buy rating, pointing to better revenue growth and a higher level of share buybacks, partially offset by higher provision expense and non-controlling interest attribution related to the Banamex stake sales. Truist sees the positives clearly but isn’t ignoring the moving parts.

Wells Fargo raised its target to $160 from $150, maintaining an Overweight rating, noting that Citi showed strong top-line double-digit growth even amid its restructuring, which appears unique not only among banks but also by companies generally. That’s notable in a sector where most peers are reporting more modest gains.

Why the Move Matters Now

Citigroup’s ROTCE hit 13% in Q1, well above the full-year guidance of 10% to 11%, giving analysts room to argue the bank could beat its own targets. The efficiency ratio improved 400 basis points year-over-year to 58%, a sign that cost discipline is translating into real margin expansion.

Citi repurchased $6.3 billion in shares during Q1 alone, with total capital returned to shareholders reaching $7.4 billion. That level of buyback activity is hard to ignore for income-focused investors watching capital allocation closely.

What It Means for Your Portfolio

Citigroup stock carries a trailing P/E ratio of 16x and a forward P/E ratio of 12x, which looks reasonable given the earnings trajectory. The analyst consensus target sits at $133, with 19 Buy ratings and no Sell ratings on record, reflecting broad institutional confidence.

The bull case rests on Citigroup’s transformation completion, capital return momentum, and a business mix firing across all five segments. The bear case centers on the $597 million ACL reserve build and a 42% year-over-year rise in corporate non-accrual loans, both worth watching as the macro environment evolves. With an Investor Day scheduled for May, the next catalyst for Citigroup is already on the calendar.

The post Citi Gets Triple Price Target Boosts From Goldman Sachs, Truist, and Wells Fargo: Is This the Bank Stock to Own Right Now? appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

With the big banks about to kick off the new earnings-reporting season, this is a good moment to ask what three of the most influential financial institutions have delivered for long-term investors.

Three Banks, Three Very Different Journeys

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) spent the decade quietly compounding. CEO Brian Moynihan leaned into digital banking, and the bank now counts 59 million active digital banking users. Net interest income (NII) grew for five consecutive quarters through 2025, and full-year net income topped $30 billion. Warren Buffett’s long-standing position gave the stock a credibility floor through volatile stretches.

Citigroup (NYSE: C) is the turnaround story. CEO Jane Fraser launched a sweeping simplification effort, divesting non-core franchises and restructuring around five core businesses. Record revenues across all five business segments in 2025 validated the strategy. The stock spent years trading below book value, making the recent re-rating especially sharp.

Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) carries the most dramatic arc. The 2016 fake-accounts scandal triggered a Federal Reserve asset cap that constrained growth for years. The asset cap was removed in Q2 2025, a landmark event. CEO Charlie Scharf called it a chance to “compete on a level playing field.” The market noticed.

What $1,000 Became Across Every Horizon

Citigroup’s one-year surge reflects a stock that spent years undervalued. Bank of America’s 10-year return of 290.4% is the quiet winner, well ahead of the S&P 500’s 223.2%. Wells Fargo’s returns suggest it has moved from being a scandal-ridden laggard to a growth-at-a-reasonable-price (GARP) stock, with investors reassessing after the asset cap removal.

The Verdict Heading Into Earnings Week

Bank of America is a steady compounder with visible earnings momentum. NII guidance calls for 5% to 7% growth in 2026, deposits topped $2 trillion, and the capital return program is accelerating. The bear case is rate sensitivity: a 100-basis-point downward shift in rates is estimated to reduce NII by $2.0 billion to $2.3 billion over 12 months.

Citigroup’s transformation is real, and management targets 10% to 11% return on tangible common equity (ROTCE) for 2026. But the stock has already doubled in a year, and the Q4 GAAP EPS miss of −26.54% is a reminder that headline numbers can still surprise badly.

Wells Fargo presents the most compelling structural case. The asset cap removal is a structural unlock. Management raised its medium-term ROTCE target to 17% to 18% and returned $23 billion to shareholders in 2025. The rerating from the asset cap removal may not yet be fully priced in.

The post If You Invested $1,000 in Bank of America, Citigroup, or Wells Fargo 10 Years Ago appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is the world’s second-largest investment bank by revenue and is ranked 32nd on the Fortune 500 list of the largest U.S. corporations by total revenue. The Wall Street white-glove giant offers financing, advisory services, risk distribution, and hedging for the firm’s institutional and corporate clients. In addition, it provides advice, investing, and execution for institutions and individuals across public and private markets.

It is always a good sign when the Goldman Sachs team starts raising price targets on Buy-rated companies. Typically, when a stock has been performing well, and its target price is increased, it usually means that analysts are optimistic about what they see six to 12 months ahead. When we see a target price increase of 11% or more, it’s time to share it with our readers. Here are three that appear to be outstanding ideas for growth and income investors.

Why we recommend Goldman Sachs stocks

Goldman Sachs is the acknowledged leader in the investment landscape on Wall Street and worldwide. The firm’s top-notch research department continues to provide clients with the best ideas across the investment spectrum and is likely to do so for years to come.

AT&T

AT&T (NYSE: T) is the world’s fourth-largest telecommunications company, measured by revenue. It continues to undergo a lengthy restructuring process while maintaining a solid dividend of 3.92%. AT&T provides a range of telecommunications, media, and technology services worldwide. Its Communications segment offers wireless voice and data communications services.

The company is continuing a multi-year restructuring into 2026, focusing on becoming a streamlined 5G and fiber connectivity company. Recent efforts include segmenting into Advanced Connectivity and Legacy, shifting to merit-based hiring, and relocating its global headquarters to Plano, Texas, to consolidate operations.

AT&T sells through its company-owned stores, agents, and third-party retail stores:

• Handsets
• Wireless data cards
• Wireless computing devices
• Carrying cases
• Hands-free devices

AT&T also provides:

• Data
• Voice
• Security
• Cloud solutions
• Outsourcing
• Managed and provided professional services
• Customer premises equipment for multinational corporations, small and mid-sized businesses, and governmental and wholesale customers.

Additionally, the company provides residential customers with fiber broadband and legacy voice telephony services. It markets its communications services and products under:

• AT&T
• Cricket
• AT&T PREPAID
• AT&T Fiber

The company’s Latin America segment provides wireless services in Mexico and video services throughout the region. This segment markets its services and products under the AT&T and Unefon brands.

The Goldman Sachs price target increased from $30 to $33, which represents a 16.5% gain from current levels.

Cheniere Energy

As the leading U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter, with a small 0.76% dividend, Cheniere Energy (NYSE: LNG) is positioned to benefit from both domestic AI-driven demand and international energy needs. Natural gas accounts for 43% of U.S. electricity production, and Cheniere’s ability to scale operations quickly makes it a key player. The company’s export capabilities also provide a hedge against fluctuations in the domestic market. Some on Wall Street believe electricity demand growth could increase by as much as 160% by 2030.

The company provides clean and secure LNG to integrated energy companies, utilities, and energy trading companies worldwide. The company operates two natural gas liquefaction and export facilities:

• The Sabine Pass LNG Terminal in Louisiana features natural gas liquefaction facilities comprising six operational trains, and it has a total production capacity of approximately 30 million tons per annum (mtpa) of LNG.
• The Corpus Christi LNG Terminal in Texas consists of three trains for a total production capacity of approximately 15 mtpa of LNG, three LNG storage tanks, and two marine berths. It also owns and operates a 94-mile natural gas supply pipeline that interconnects the Sabine Pass LNG Terminal with several large interstate and intrastate pipelines.

Goldman Sachs raised its $276 price target to $312. That would be an 11% gain from current levels.

Citigroup

This financial powerhouse offers investors a 2.05% dividend and solid total return potential, and it will be one of the first to report earnings next week. Citigroup (NYSE: C) is a global diversified financial services holding company. Its segments include:

• Services
• Markets
• Banking
• Wealth
• U.S. Personal Banking (USPB)

The Services segment includes Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS) and securities services. TTS provides an integrated suite of tailored cash management, trade, and working capital solutions to multinational corporations, financial institutions, and public sector organizations.

The Markets segment provides corporate, institutional, and public-sector clients worldwide with a full range of sales and trading services across equities, foreign exchange, rates, spread products, and commodities.

The Banking segment includes investment banking, which supports client capital-raising needs to help strengthen and grow their businesses.

The Wealth segment includes Private Bank, Wealth at Work, and Citigold, and provides financial services to a range of client segments. The USPB segment includes branded cards and retail services.

The $123 Goldman Sachs target price is now $137, which signals an 18% gain.

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Cap-weighted index funds have a structural quirk that most investors overlook: the more a stock’s price rises, the more of your money gets automatically funneled into it. With NVIDIA, Apple, and Microsoft now representing roughly 28% of the iShares S&P 100 ETF (OEF), owning a cap-weighted large-cap fund today means roughly one dollar in three is riding on three technology companies. Invesco S&P 100 Equal Weight ETF (NYSEARCA:EQWL) was built to solve exactly that problem, and iShares S&P 100 ETF (NYSEARCA:OEF) is its cap-weighted counterpart.

What EQWL Is Actually Doing in Your Portfolio

EQWL holds the same 100 companies as the cap-weighted S&P 100, but assigns each one roughly equal weight at every quarterly rebalance. In practice, that means Boeing, Citigroup, and Visa each get about 1% of the portfolio, while Nvidia and Apple get the same treatment rather than the outsized positions they hold in cap-weighted alternatives. The result is a fund where no single holding exceeds 1.13%.

The return engine here is structural rebalancing. Every quarter, EQWL systematically trims positions that have run up and adds to those that have lagged. This is a disciplined, rules-based version of “buy low, sell high” applied across 100 blue-chip companies. Sector exposure shifts meaningfully as a result: Financials, Information Technology, and Healthcare each carry roughly 15-17% of the portfolio, compared to Information Technology alone commanding 39% in the cap-weighted OEF.

The Performance Reality Check

Equal weighting has a cost, and the data makes it visible. Over the past decade, EQWL returned 281%, while cap-weighted iShares S&P 100 ETF returned 334% over the same period. The gap is largely explained by the mega-cap tech rally of the 2020s, where concentrated bets on Nvidia and Apple generated returns that equal-weight rebalancing would have repeatedly trimmed.

2026 is telling a different story. Year-to-date, EQWL is up 1.5% while OEF is down nearly 3%. When mega-cap tech stumbles, equal weighting’s diversification advantage becomes real and immediate. This rotation dynamic is precisely why retirement investors find the strategy appealing as a complement to broad index exposure.

The Tradeoffs Worth Understanding

The first tradeoff is straightforward: capped upside during mega-cap bull runs. Equal weighting systematically reduces exposure to the market’s biggest winners at the moment they are winning most. For long-term accumulators in their 30s and 40s, that has historically meant leaving returns on the table.

The second tradeoff is slightly higher costs relative to the cheapest passive alternatives. At 0.25% annually, EQWL is still inexpensive in absolute terms, but it costs more than the 0.20% OEF charges. The quarterly rebalancing that makes equal weighting work also generates more turnover, which can create minor tax drag in taxable accounts.

The third consideration is income. EQWL’s 1.82% dividend yield is meaningfully higher than OEF’s 0.86%, which reflects the fund’s greater exposure to dividend-paying sectors like Financials, Healthcare, and Industrials. For retirement portfolios drawing income, that difference is real. Against the current 10-year Treasury yield of 4.15%, neither fund competes on pure income, but EQWL’s yield advantage over its cap-weighted peer is a genuine structural benefit for retirees who want equity growth alongside some dividend contribution.

EQWL is designed as a core large-cap holding for investors seeking genuine diversification across all sectors of the U.S. economy, though anyone who expects to match the returns of a cap-weighted index during prolonged mega-cap tech rallies should understand what the strategy sacrifices to get there.

The post Forget Cap-Weighted Indexes: Why This Equal Weight Large-Cap ETF Belongs in Every Retirement Portfolio Instead appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

Goldman Sachs is the acknowledged leader in the investment landscape on Wall Street and worldwide. The firm’s top-notch research department continues to provide institutional and high-net-worth clients with the best ideas across the investment spectrum and is likely to do so for years to come. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is the world’s second-largest investment bank by revenue and is ranked 55th on the Fortune 500 list of the largest U.S. corporations by total revenue. The Wall Street white-glove giant offers financing, advisory services, risk distribution, and hedging for the firm’s institutional and corporate clients. In addition, it provides advice, investing, and execution for institutions and individuals across public and private markets. At 24/7 Wall St., we have followed the company’s research for 15 years to bring our readers top stock ideas.

Each year, the Goldman Sachs research team releases its Hedge Fund Trend Monitor and Mutual Fundamentals reports, which analyze $9 trillion of equity positions at the start of the first quarter of 2026. The Goldman Sachs analysis covers 1,029 hedge funds with $4.4 trillion of gross equity positions ($2.9 trillion long, $1.5 trillion short) and 524 large-cap active mutual funds with a combined $4.1 trillion in equity assets. They noted this in the report when discussing hedge fund and mutual fund tactics in 2026:

Mutual funds and hedge funds agree on most sectors, with Health Care and Industrials ranking among the most overweight sectors for both groups. The exceptions to this consensus are Financials, where mutual funds are overweight, but hedge funds are underweight, and Consumer Discretionary, where hedge funds are overweight but mutual funds are underweight. In terms of recent rotations, both hedge funds and mutual funds have recently added to tilts in Energy and Consumer Discretionary while cutting positions in Communication Services. Five “shared favorite” stocks register as popular holdings in both hedge fund and mutual fund portfolios this quarter. Shared favorites have outperformed the S&P 500 by 2 percentage points YTD and by 6 percentage points in the last month.

Here are the five stocks that both hedge funds and mutual funds are overweight on, and it should come as no surprise that all five are rated Buy by top Wall Street firms that we cover here at 24/7 Wall St.

Boeing

After a rough few years, the aerospace and defense giant is back on a strong path. Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) segments include:

• Commercial Airplanes (BCA)
• Defense, Space & Security (BDS)
• Global Services (BGS)

Its BCA segment develops, produces, and markets commercial jet aircraft primarily for the worldwide commercial airline industry. Its family of commercial jet aircraft in production includes the 737 narrow-body model and the 767, 777, and 787 wide-body models.

The BDS segment is engaged in the research, development, production, and modification of manned and unmanned military aircraft and weapons systems for strike, surveillance, and mobility. Its BGS segment provides services to its commercial and defense customers worldwide.

Boeing sustains aerospace platforms and systems with a range of products and services, including:

• Supply chain and logistics management
• Engineering, maintenance, and modifications
• Upgrades and conversions
• Spare parts
• Pilot and maintenance training systems and services
• Technical and maintenance documents

Jefferies has a Buy rating with a $295 target price.

Citigroup

This American multinational investment bank and financial services company is based in New York City and offers a 2.01% dividend yield. Citigroup (NYSE: C) is a global diversified financial services holding company.

The company’s segments include:

• Services
• Markets
• Banking
• Wealth
• U.S. Personal Banking (USPB)

The Services segment includes Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS) and securities services. TTS provides an integrated suite of tailored cash management, trade, and working capital solutions to multinational corporations, financial institutions, and public sector organizations.

Its Markets segment provides corporate, institutional, and public-sector clients worldwide with a full range of sales and trading services across equities, foreign exchange, rates, spread products, and commodities.

The Banking segment includes investment banking, which supports client capital-raising needs to help strengthen and grow their businesses.

Citigroup’s Wealth segment includes Private Bank, Wealth at Work, and Citigold, and provides financial services to a range of client segments. The USPB segment includes branded cards and retail services.

Oppenheimer has an Outperform rating with a $145 price target.

Mastercard

MasterCard was one of the first major, general-purpose bank credit cards, launched shortly after the industry began in the late 1950s. Mastercard (NYSE: MA) is a technology company in the global payments industry, and it pays a small 0.61% dividend.

The company connects consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments, digital partners, businesses, and other organizations worldwide by enabling electronic payments and making those payment transactions secure, simple, smart, and accessible.

It provides a range of payment solutions and services using its brands, including Mastercard, Maestro, and Cirrus.

Mastercard operates a payments network that provides choice and flexibility for consumers, merchants, and its customers. Through its proprietary global payments network, it switches (authorizes, clears, and settles) payment transactions. Its additional payment capabilities include automated clearing house (ACH) transactions (both batch and real-time account-based payments).

It offers security solutions, consumer acquisition and engagement, business and market insights, gateway services, processing, and open banking, among other services.

Goldman Sachs has a Buy rating with a $739 target price.

Vertiv

While off the radar for many investors, this stock may have the biggest upside potential from current trading levels. Vertiv (NYSE: VRT) provides mission-critical digital infrastructure technologies and lifecycle services primarily for data centers, communication networks, and commercial and industrial environments.

The company’s offerings include alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC) power management products, switchgear and busbar products, thermal management products, integrated rack systems, modular solutions, management systems for monitoring and controlling digital infrastructure, and services.

Its business segments include Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East & Africa. The Americas segment includes products such as:

• AC and DC power management
• Thermal management
• Low-and medium-voltage switchgear
• Busbars
• Integrated modular solutions
• Racks
• Single-phase UPS
• Rack power distribution
• Rack thermal systems
• Configurable integrated solutions
• Energy storage solutions
• Hardware and software for managing IT equipment

Morgan Stanley has an Overweight rating with a $285 price target.

Visa

Like Mastercard, this global payments giant has been on a huge run that doesn’t look like it will stop anytime soon. Visa (NYSE: V) is a global payments technology company that facilitates global commerce and money movement across more than 200 countries and territories among consumers, merchants, financial institutions, and government entities through its technologies.

It operates through the Payment Services segment and provides transaction processing services (primarily authorization, clearing, and settlement) to its financial institution and merchant clients through VisaNet, its proprietary advanced transaction processing network.

Visa offers a range of Visa-branded payment products that its clients, including nearly 14,500 financial institutions, use to develop and offer payment solutions and services, including credit, debit, prepaid, and cash access programs for individual, business, and government account holders.

It also provides value-added services to its clients, including issuing solutions, acceptance solutions, risk and identity solutions, open banking solutions, and advisory services.

Morgan Stanley has an Overweight rating with a $411 price target.

The post Goldman Sachs Says Hedge Funds and Mutual Funds Both Love 5 Top Stocks appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) and Citigroup (NYSE: C) both reported Q4 2025 earnings on January 14, 2026, yet investors sold off both stocks despite solid results. The selloff reflects concern over net interest income pressure in a higher-for-longer rate environment. Since January 1, 2026, Wells Fargo has declined 4.98% while Citigroup has slipped just 0.36%, revealing how different business models respond to the same rate backdrop.

How the Quarter Landed: Asset Cap Removal vs. Cost Restructuring

Wells Fargo delivered $21.29 billion in revenue and $1.76 EPS, topping earnings expectations but falling short on the top line. Its Consumer, Small & Business Banking segment rose 9% to $6.59 billion, while Credit Card climbed 7% to $1.38 billion. CEO Charlie Scharf called the removal of the Federal Reserve asset cap transformational: “Strong financial performance, removal of the asset cap […] and stronger growth in both our consumer and commercial businesses make me proud of our 2025 results.” Net interest income grew 4% year-over-year on higher loan balances and fixed-rate asset repricing.

Citigroup posted $19.90 billion in revenue and $1.19 EPS, missing both estimates. Net income fell 13.8% to $2.5 billion, weighed down by 6% higher operating expenses tied to compensation, legal, and technology costs. Banking revenues surged 78% and Services rose 15%, but Markets slipped 1%. CEO Jane Fraser’s restructuring included 1,000 job cuts in January 2026. The bank’s presence in 180+ countries provides diversification but also exposes it to geopolitical volatility.

One Bet on Domestic Growth, One on Global Reach

With the asset cap lifted, Wells Fargo can grow deposits and loans without regulatory constraint. Management raised its medium-term return on tangible common equity target to 17% to 18% from 15%, expects mid-single-digit loan and deposit growth in 2026, and anticipates two more Fed rate cuts. The 10Y-2Y yield curve spread at 0.64% supports net interest margin expansion, though further cuts could compress that advantage.

Citigroup leans into institutional banking, cross-border services, and wealth management. Its $208 billion market cap reflects a lower valuation than Wells Fargo’s $278 billion, with Citi trading at 1.06x book value versus Wells Fargo’s 1.64x. Fraser’s turnaround targets a lower expense base while protecting Services and Banking revenue, though Russia-related tax impacts continue to surface.

Why Wells Fargo Edges Ahead for Income

Wells Fargo increased its quarterly dividend 13% over 2025 to $0.45 and repurchased $5.0 billion in stock during Q4 alone. Citigroup’s 2.06% yield is slightly higher, but declining net income and rising expenses cloud the picture. Wells Fargo’s domestic focus also insulates it from geopolitical risk. For those drawn to a turnaround play, Citi’s discount to book value offers appeal, though the restructuring timeline remains uncertain. Trump’s proposed credit card interest rate cap poses a shared risk, though Wells Fargo’s diversified consumer banking portfolio may absorb it better than Citi’s card-heavy U.S. personal banking segment.

The post Citigroup vs Wells Fargo: Which Wins on Dividends, Buybacks, Interest Rate Exposure? appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

Thursday’s market session delivered a painful reminder that even the strongest financial stocks aren’t immune to broad-based selling pressure. Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM), and Citigroup (NYSE:C) all crashed Thursday, with the selling accelerating dramatically in the final hour of trading.

Goldman Sachs: Hardest Hit with 5.1% Plunge

Goldman Sachs took the hardest hit, plunging 5.1% from its opening price of $956.17 to close near $907.99. The real carnage came between 3:55 PM and 4:00 PM ET, when volume exploded to 708,549 shares in a single five-minute window. That’s institutional selling, not retail panic. As we discussed in today’s Daily Profit newsletter, Fed rate decisions and Treasury yield movements continue to drive financial sector volatility, and today’s selloff confirms those concerns.

JPMorgan Chase: Institutional Selling Accelerates

JPMorgan followed a similar pattern, dropping from $312.88 at the open to $302.79 by the close, with 5.57 million shares changing hands at 4:00 PM. Banking had been a ‘safe haven’ as investors fled industries they were afraid could be ‘disrupted’ by the rise of AI. However, we’ve seen fears spread to even more sectors like commercial real estate in recent days. This could be adding additional selling pressure across the financial space.

Citigroup: Continuing Weakness

Citigroup wasn’t spared either, falling 5% from its session high of $119.18 to close at $111.47.

The broader market provided little comfort. The S&P 500 (tracked by SPY) declined 1.8% intraday, with the heaviest selling pressure hitting during the same 3:50 PM to 4:10 PM window that hammered the banks. But here’s the key: banks underperformed. While SPY fell less than 2%, Goldman dropped over 5%. That’s not just market weakness. That’s sector-specific selling.

What triggered the exodus? The catalyst appears to be a cascade of analyst downgrades in the asset management sector. BMO Capital Markets lowered its price target on T. Rowe Price Group from $110 to $104 on Thursday afternoon at 2:50 PM ET, joining recent downgrades from Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, and Goldman Sachs itself. When the banks that provide research start cutting price targets on asset managers after earnings misses, it signals broader concerns about fee-based revenue streams and market activity levels.

Sector-Wide Weakness: Regional Banks Follow

The regional banking sector confirmed this wasn’t isolated to the money-center giants. The SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (NYSEARCA:KRE) dropped 3.8%, falling from $72.27 at the open to $70.72 by the close. That marks the third consecutive day of declines for regional banks, with the ETF now down 2.2% for the week.

The timing matters. All three banks reported earnings in mid-January, so this isn’t a reaction to fresh quarterly results. Goldman beat on earnings but missed on revenue. JPMorgan beat on revenue but missed on earnings. Citigroup missed on both. What we’re seeing now is the market reassessing those results in light of deteriorating sentiment around trading revenues, asset management fees, and the economic outlook.

For bank investors, Thursday’s selloff raises an uncomfortable question: are we watching a temporary pullback or the beginning of a broader rotation out of financials? The concentration of selling volume in the final hour suggests forced liquidation or portfolio rebalancing, not conviction selling. But with JPMorgan down 5.7% year-to-date and Citigroup off 4.3%, the trend is clear. Banks are losing their bid.

The post Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Citigroup All Plunge Over 5% on Thursday appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

This article will be updated throughout the day, so check back often for more daily updates. 

The markets are retreating today after a two-day rally in which technology stocks were out front. Today, tech is a drag, with stalwart chipmaker Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) down by a double digit percentage as worries around chip demand resurface. All three of the major stock market averages are seeing red, including a fractional decline in the Nasdaq Composite. Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA) is a rare gainer today, tacking on 1.6% and preventing the markets from further declines.

Sectors of the economy are mixed, with energy out front amid a nearly 3% gain in the WTI Crude oil price. Natural gas prices are also skyrocketing by over 60% as a fresh arctic blast begins to blanket the U.S. Separately, Precious metals are extending their run, including a spot gold price that’s inching closer to the key $5,000/ounce level.

While a potential successor to Tim Cook has been making headlines, Bloomberg reports that the Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) CEO has zero plans of stepping down anytime soon.

Here’s a look at where things stand as of morning trading:

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 49,320.00 Down 238.00 (-0.48%)
Nasdaq Composite: 25,588.50 Down 67.75 (-0.26%)
S&P 500: 6,932.50 Down 12.50 (-0.18%)

Market Movers

HSBC analysts have reemphasized their “buy” rating on Meta (Nasdaq: META) stock with a price target of $905 per share, touting the company’s early-mover status in AI models and aggressive capex spending.

As earnings season rolls on, Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) is expected to report its latest quarterly performance on Feb. 5.

Buy now pay later platform Affirm (Nasdaq: AFRM) is looking to expand its capabilities into banking, filing for an industrial loan company charter with the state of Nevada and paving the way for the company to compete more directly with financial institutions. Speaking of banks, Citigroup (NYSE: C) is gearing up for additional layoffs in Q1, according to a report in Reuters.

The post Live Nasdaq Composite: Market Mettle Tested in Whipsaw Week appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

This article will be updated throughout the day, so check back often for more daily updates. 

Markets have no shortage of headlines or earnings to respond to this morning. Overall it appears stock sentiment is being dragged lower by financial stocks as big banks continue to unveil their Q4 results and Wall Street is not impressed. The resilient consumer didn’t disappoint over the early holiday shopping season, with November retail sales 0.6% vs. the prior month and surpassing economist estimates. Results were also buoyed by strong auto sales in the period. President Trump has set his sights on acquiring Greenland for what he described as the “purpose of national security.”

Netflix (Nasdaq; NFLX) stock is getting a bump today as the content streaming giant flexes by potentially overhauling its Warner Bros. offer to an all-cash deal. Separately, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) reportedly has been deepening its relationship with AI company Anthropic, doling out approximately $500 million per year on AI to support its solutions.

Here’s a look at where things stand as of morning trading:

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 49,121.06 Down 54.82 (-0.11%)
Nasdaq Composite: 23,553.45 Down 164.39 (-0.69%)
S&P 500: 6,933.49 Down 30.25 (-0.43%)

Market Movers

Wall Street banks are selling off after unveiling their Q4 performance. Despite beating analyst estimates on strong net interest income and stock market trading, Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) stock is getting hammered, down 3.5% in early trading. Citi (NYSE: C) is managing a fractional gain despite profit pangs. Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) also reported Q4 results, missing on revenue while sending the stock spiraling by a steep 4.1%.

Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang is not shying away from the Google/Alphabet (Nasdaq: GOOGL) effect, posting on social media that “Alphabet and NVIDIA are expanding their decade-long partnership to advance agentic AI, robotics, drug discovery, and more.”

The post Live Nasdaq Composite: Markets See Glass Half Empty amid Weakened Sentiment appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..