Advertisement
CFG or RF or VLY
Which Stock Would AI Choose? Citizens Financial Group (CFG) vs. Regions Financial (RF) vs. Valley National Bancorp (VLY) Stock Comparison
Key Takeaways
- CFG leads YTD with approximately +2% return, showing resilience amid regional bank sector volatility, supported by revenue growth and analyst upgrades.
- RF trades at a lower P/E of around 11x, offering value with recent Zacks Buy upgrade, though down roughly 4-6% YTD and facing share price weakness in recent weeks.
- VLY exhibits positive YTD momentum at +6%, with strong analyst targets around $15, but higher volatility tied to commercial real estate exposure.
- All three regional banks have pulled back over the past month amid broader sector pressures, with CFG around 58-59, RF near 25-26, and VLY at 12, reflecting inflation and credit concerns.
- One-year returns favor CFG at +40-45%, followed by VLY +30-40% and RF +20%, highlighting diverse momentum profiles.
Introduction
This stock comparison examines CFG, RF, and VLY, three regional banks navigating a dynamic market shaped by interest rate expectations, loan growth, and credit quality concerns. Investors and traders focused on financial sector relative performance will find value in understanding their business models, recent momentum, and positioning amid sector-wide pullbacks. With regional banks sensitive to economic shifts, this analysis highlights contrasts in valuation, growth drivers, and sentiment to inform portfolio decisions in the current environment.
CFG Overview and Recent Performance
Citizens Financial Group (CFG), headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island, operates as a bank holding company offering retail and commercial banking through Consumer and Commercial Banking segments. It provides deposits, mortgages, credit cards, business loans, wealth management, and capital markets services across the U.S. In recent market activity, CFG shares have traded around $58-59, reflecting a modest YTD gain of about 2% while outperforming the S&P 500's decline. Sentiment has been bolstered by robust 2025 revenue growth, strategic investments like San Francisco community commitments, and analyst upgrades citing loan growth and margin improvements. Despite monthly pullbacks tied to inflation data and regional bank pressures, one-year returns exceed 40%, driven by net interest margin expansion and positive earnings revisions.
RF Overview and Recent Performance
Regions Financial (RF), based in Birmingham, Alabama, delivers banking products via Corporate Bank, Consumer Bank, and Wealth Management segments, including commercial real estate lending, consumer mortgages, deposits, and investment services. Recent weeks have seen RF shares fluctuate near $25-26, with YTD performance lagging at -4% to -6% amid broader sector declines of 15% monthly. Influences include share price weakness post-earnings and credit risk worries, though a Zacks Buy upgrade highlights earnings estimate lifts and a fair value near $31. Strong 2025 full-year earnings of $2.1 billion and revenue growth underpin long-term positioning, with one-year returns around 20%.
VLY Overview and Recent Performance
Valley National Bancorp (VLY), a New Jersey-based regional bank, focuses on commercial, retail, and wealth management banking with emphasis on multi-family and commercial real estate loans. Shares have hovered around $12 in recent trading, posting a YTD gain of +6% and outperforming peers amid volatility. Performance reflects analyst optimism with targets near $15, supported by Q4 2025 earnings beats and insider buying, though monthly dips of 10-13% mirror sector credit concerns. One-year returns stand at 30-40%, influenced by deposit growth and CRE exposure management in a high-rate backdrop.
Trending AI Robots
Tickeron’s Trending AI Robots page showcases a curated selection of the platform’s top-performing AI trading bots from hundreds available, each designed to trade thousands of tickers across diverse strategies. Only the most suitable for prevailing market conditions earn a spot among the 25 featured, with annualized returns ranging from +15% to +138%, win rates of 56-89%, and timeframes like 5min to 60min swings. Examples include bots targeting semiconductors (+83% return, 68% win rate), oil & gas (3-25 tickers), and volatility plays, employing corridor, hedging, and trend-following styles. These bots deliver real-time signals with customizable risk management, appealing to traders seeking data-driven edges. Explore the Trending AI Robots page to identify strategies aligning with current volatility.
Head-to-Head Comparison
CFG, RF, and VLY operate similar regional banking models but differ in scale and exposure: CFG ($25B market cap) emphasizes diversified consumer/commercial lending in the Northeast, RF ($22B cap) focuses on Southeast corporate and wealth services, and smaller VLY ($6-7B cap) targets NY/NJ CRE. Growth drivers include CFG's margin expansion versus RF's fee income and VLY's deposit momentum. Recent momentum favors VLY YTD but CFG over one year; risks center on CRE for VLY/RF and credit quality across all amid inflation. Valuation sensitivity shows RF cheapest at 11x P/E, CFG at 15x; sentiment tilts positive for CFG upgrades versus peers' pullbacks.
Tickeron AI Verdict
Tickeron’s AI currently favors CFG for its superior trend consistency, YTD outperformance, revenue momentum, and analyst support amid sector stress. Relative stability and catalysts like loan growth position it probabilistically ahead of RF's value appeal and VLY's volatility, though all warrant monitoring for rate shifts.
Disclaimer
The information on this webpage is provided for general informational and educational purposes only and is not intended as investment advice, a recommendation to purchase or sell any security, or an offer or solicitation related to investments. It does not consider your personal financial situation, goals, or risk profile, and all investing carries inherent risks, including the possibility of losing your entire investment. For more details, please review our full disclaimer. Disclaimers and Limitations
Long-Term Analysis
It is best to consider a long-term outlook for a ticker by using Fundamental Analysis (FA) ratings. The rating of 1 to 100, where 1 is best and 100 is worst, is divided into thirds. The first third (a green rating of 1-33) indicates that the ticker is undervalued; the second third (a grey number between 34 and 66) means that the ticker is valued fairly; and the last third (red number of 67 to 100) reflects that the ticker is undervalued. We use an FA Score to show how many ratings show the ticker to be undervalued (green) or overvalued (red).
CFG’s FA Score shows that 3 FA rating(s) are green whileRF’s FA Score has 1 green FA rating(s), and VLY’s FA Score reflects 1 green FA rating(s).
- CFG’s FA Score: 3 green, 2 red.
- RF’s FA Score: 1 green, 4 red.
- VLY’s FA Score: 1 green, 4 red.
Short-Term Analysis
It is best to consider a short-term outlook for a ticker by using Technical Analysis (TA) indicators. We use Odds of Success as the percentage of outcomes which confirm successful trade signals in the past.
If the Odds of Success (the likelihood of the continuation of a trend) for each indicator are greater than 50%, then the generated signal is confirmed. A green percentage from 90% to 51% indicates that the ticker is in a bullish trend. A red percentage from 90% - 51% indicates that the ticker is in a bearish trend. All grey percentages are below 50% and are considered not to confirm the trend signal.
CFG’s TA Score shows that 4 TA indicator(s) are bullish while RF’s TA Score has 3 bullish TA indicator(s), and VLY’s TA Score reflects 4 bullish TA indicator(s).
- CFG’s TA Score: 4 bullish, 6 bearish.
- RF’s TA Score: 3 bullish, 7 bearish.
- VLY’s TA Score: 4 bullish, 6 bearish.
Price Growth
CFG (@Regional Banks) experienced а +5.21% price change this week, while RF (@Regional Banks) price change was +3.89% , and VLY (@Regional Banks) price fluctuated +5.15% for the same time period.
The average weekly price growth across all stocks in the @Regional Banks industry was +2.59%. For the same industry, the average monthly price growth was +3.81%, and the average quarterly price growth was +18.99%.
Reported Earning Dates
CFG is expected to report earnings on Apr 16, 2026.
RF is expected to report earnings on Apr 17, 2026.
VLY is expected to report earnings on Apr 23, 2026.
Industries' Descriptions
@Regional Banks (+2.59% weekly)Regional banks have a smaller reach than major banks, and cater mostly to one region of a country, such as a state or within a group of states. They offer services often similar – albeit with some limitations/smaller scale – compared to major banks. Taking deposits, making loans, mortgages, leases, credit cards , fund management, insurance and investment banking. SunTrust Banks, State Street Corp., M&T Bank Corp. are some examples of U.S. regional banks.
| CFG | RF | VLY | |
| Capitalization | 27.3B | 23.5B | 7.24B |
| EBITDA | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Gain YTD | 10.633 | 2.452 | 12.862 |
| P/E Ratio | 16.62 | 11.96 | 12.93 |
| Revenue | 8.25B | 7.53B | 2.03B |
| Total Cash | 11.6B | 3.11B | 376M |
| Total Debt | 11.3B | 4.88B | 3.34B |
CFG | RF | VLY | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
OUTLOOK RATING 1..100 | 19 | 22 | 20 | |
VALUATION overvalued / fair valued / undervalued 1..100 | 82 Overvalued | 69 Overvalued | 45 Fair valued | |
PROFIT vs RISK RATING 1..100 | 46 | 43 | 80 | |
SMR RATING 1..100 | 7 | 7 | 11 | |
PRICE GROWTH RATING 1..100 | 13 | 46 | 41 | |
P/E GROWTH RATING 1..100 | 25 | 39 | 48 | |
SEASONALITY SCORE 1..100 | 50 | 50 | 50 |
Tickeron ratings are formulated such that a rating of 1 designates the most successful stocks in a given industry, while a rating of 100 points to the least successful stocks for that industry.
VLY's Valuation (45) in the Regional Banks industry is in the same range as RF (69) in the Major Banks industry, and is somewhat better than the same rating for CFG (82) in the Regional Banks industry. This means that VLY's stock grew similarly to RF’s and somewhat faster than CFG’s over the last 12 months.
RF's Profit vs Risk Rating (43) in the Major Banks industry is in the same range as CFG (46) in the Regional Banks industry, and is somewhat better than the same rating for VLY (80) in the Regional Banks industry. This means that RF's stock grew similarly to CFG’s and somewhat faster than VLY’s over the last 12 months.
RF's SMR Rating (7) in the Major Banks industry is in the same range as CFG (7) in the Regional Banks industry, and is in the same range as VLY (11) in the Regional Banks industry. This means that RF's stock grew similarly to CFG’s and similarly to VLY’s over the last 12 months.
CFG's Price Growth Rating (13) in the Regional Banks industry is in the same range as VLY (41) in the Regional Banks industry, and is somewhat better than the same rating for RF (46) in the Major Banks industry. This means that CFG's stock grew similarly to VLY’s and somewhat faster than RF’s over the last 12 months.
CFG's P/E Growth Rating (25) in the Regional Banks industry is in the same range as RF (39) in the Major Banks industry, and is in the same range as VLY (48) in the Regional Banks industry. This means that CFG's stock grew similarly to RF’s and similarly to VLY’s over the last 12 months.
| CFG | RF | VLY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| RSI ODDS (%) | 1 day ago 52% | 1 day ago 56% | 1 day ago 62% |
| Stochastic ODDS (%) | 1 day ago 60% | 1 day ago 64% | 1 day ago 68% |
| Momentum ODDS (%) | 1 day ago 68% | 1 day ago 65% | 1 day ago 69% |
| MACD ODDS (%) | 1 day ago 74% | 1 day ago 64% | 1 day ago 75% |
| TrendWeek ODDS (%) | 1 day ago 66% | 1 day ago 63% | 1 day ago 64% |
| TrendMonth ODDS (%) | 1 day ago 64% | 1 day ago 59% | 1 day ago 63% |
| Advances ODDS (%) | 3 days ago 64% | 3 days ago 62% | 3 days ago 62% |
| Declines ODDS (%) | 13 days ago 62% | 16 days ago 64% | 13 days ago 69% |
| BollingerBands ODDS (%) | 1 day ago 51% | 1 day ago 55% | 1 day ago 68% |
| Aroon ODDS (%) | 1 day ago 78% | 1 day ago 49% | 1 day ago 68% |
Advertisement