Stock prices at many of the largest banks in America—called “money center banks” for their role in financing governments, large corporations, and other banks—are eclipsing their nonbanking peers, according to a Morgan Stanley report shared with Fortune. Last quarter, two-thirds of them beat the S&P 500, an index tracking the best performing large-cap stocks in the U.S. Trading and investment banking revenues at Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan Chase all beat Morgan Stanley’s price targets—and with capital markets starting to break away from three-decade lows, the good news is likely just beginning.
But even amid the surge, longtime underperformer Citigroup stands out from the other banks. First, it beat Morgan Stanley’s price target by a whopping 20%, increasing from $66 to $79. Second, and perhaps most important, it has the DNA of a great American bank, but for the past 15 years has performed like a mediocre regional one. After falling from a high of $550 in May 2007 it’s been trapped between about $30 in April 2009 and $81 in January 2020, leading to reports that other banks regarded Citi as a “laughingstock.”
