Josh Brown says this bank stock on his list has a ‘holy trinity’ setup going for it
(This is The Best Stocks in the Market , brought to you by Josh Brown and Sean Russo of Ritholtz Wealth Management.) Josh — We first wrote up Citizens (CFG) for you six months ago and the picture has become even clearer since. Put simply, they have the best earnings growth in the space, the most interesting story and a flawless chart. I call this sort of set-up a Holy Trinity: sector strength, company fundamentals and stock chart all working together at the same time. I live for this. This is why I bought some for myself the other day (as mentioned during Tuesday’s ” Halftime Report “). Clients of Ritholtz Wealth Management running our Porterhouse separately managed account strategy are also invested in the name. With that disclosure out of the way, I’m going to let Sean tell you the story, starting with the backdrop of a sector-wide rally that very few commentators are talking about. Afterward, I’ll come in with a look at the technicals and some risk management comments. Best Stock Spotlight: Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (CFG) Sean — Regional banks are breaking out right now. The State Street Regional Banking ETF (KRE) is a beautiful example of a consistent, durable trend higher, it’s exactly what we want to see. Price almost perfectly cuts across the chart from the bottom left to the top right. Each low is followed by a higher low, and each high is followed by a higher high. In an environment where prognosticators are screaming about higher rates, inflation, consumer weakness, oil prices, geopolitics, etc, this chart of small, regional banks should shut up every macro doomer. Regionals are one of the most direct, unfiltered reads on the “real” economy you can get. Unlike the money center giants with their trading desks and global capital markets teams, regional banks live and die on lending to consumers and small businesses. Their balance sheets are full of HELOCs, auto loans, credit cards, mortgages, small business lines and middle-market commercial credit. When this group is making higher highs, it’s telling you that households are still borrowing and paying their bills, small businesses are still investing and expanding, credit losses are contained, and loan demand is healthy. Within regionals, Citizens Financial, a stock that Josh graded as an A+ breakout in December , is leading the space, up 21% since we wrote about it (it’s also up 21% YTD), vs a return of 8% for the S & P 500 and a -1% return for the financial sector (XLF). Citizens is a regional U.S. bank based in Providence, Rhode Island, with three core parts of its business. The consumer bank runs 1,000 branches across 14 Northeast/Mid-Atlantic states and is the #1 HELOC originator in the country. The commercial bank serves the middle market and private equity sponsors, with full capital markets capabilities across M & A advisory, underwriting, and lending. And the newest leg—a private bank & wealth franchise built from scratch in 2023 by hiring 150 bankers out of the failed First Republic—has already grown to 650+ people, $16.6 billion in deposits and $10.1 billion in client AUM in just three years. What sets CFG apart is its earnings growth — which is the best in the entire industry. Screen the S & P 500 regional banks and CFG tops the table with 35% expected EPS growth this year, well ahead of the next-closest peer (KEY at 20.1%). Q1 2026 showed this with 47% EPS growth year over year, record capital markets fees, and the best quarterly net income in company history. And there’s still upside not yet baked in. Guidance points to 6%–8% fee income growth and 500bps of positive operating leverage for 2026, with the private bank set to grow from 10% of earnings today to the mid-teens by 2027. On top of that sits “Reimagine the Bank,” an AI-driven efficiency program targeting a $450M pre-tax cost reduction by 2028 that management has explicitly excluded from that target, making it pure upside. Now here’s Josh on the risk management… Risk management Josh — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said “into each life some rain must fall” and so it goes with the stocks we like. They don’t all work out in a straight line (or at all). Therefore, we finish each of these columns with a look at the charts and where things could potentially change. This chart tells the story of a stock that has been in a persistent, well-structured uptrend for nearly a year. Price has been making higher lows and higher highs since the July 2025 lows around $45, riding above a rising 50-day moving average for the majority of that climb. The one meaningful interruption came in the February to March 2026 window (like every other stock), when CFG pulled back sharply to test the $57 area. But the buyers stepped back in with conviction. I also want to point out that at no point was the major trendline – the 200-day – ever challenged. This is what we watch for with our stocks during market-wide sell-offs that have nothing to do with the company itself. Anyway, the spring recovery was swift and decisive, and the stock has since pushed to new highs, closing at $69 (nice) with the $70 level now directly overhead as the next technical hurdle to clear. RSI is currently reading 69, which puts momentum right at the edge of extended territory without having crossed into it. What matters more than the number itself is the context: this reading is coming off a base that spent months consolidating between $57 and $65, so the momentum expansion reflects a genuine breakout rather than a parabolic blow-off. The trend has earned this reading. For traders who want to use this strength as an entry, the 50-day moving average at $64 is the natural stop reference. A close back below that level would suggest the breakout has failed and the thesis needs revisiting. Personally, I wouldn’t take this as a trade and would skip the 50-day. I’d give it more room. Investors with a longer horizon can anchor their risk to the $57 area, where price found support twice during the February and March pullback and where buyers demonstrated they were willing to defend the position aggressively. As long as CFG holds above that floor, the trend remains intact. 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