Regional Banks: Three Stocks Graded by AAII

By AAII Staff
September 08, 2026
Featured Tickers:
KEY PACW WTFC

Learn more about KeyCorp and Wintrust Financial Corporation’s stock grades for Momentum, Estimate Revisions and Quality and determine whether this financials stock meets your investment needs.

Which Is a Better Financials Stock Investment, KeyCorp or Wintrust Financial Corporation?

KeyCorp operates as the holding company for KeyBank National Association that provides various retail and commercial banking products and services in the United States. It operates in two segments, Consumer Bank and Commercial Bank. The company offers various deposits and investment products; personal finance and financial wellness, lending, student loan refinancing, mortgage and home equity, credit card, treasury, and business advisory; commercial leasing, investment management, consumer finance; and wealth management and investment services for institutional, non-profit, and high-net-worth clients. It also provides lending, cash management, equipment financing, and commercial mortgage loans; and capital market products and services, such as syndicated finance, debt and equity underwriting, fixed income and equity sales and trading, derivatives, foreign exchange, mergers and acquisition, other advisory services, and public finance to large corporate and institutional clients. In addition, the company offers personal and institutional trust custody services, personal financial and planning services, access to mutual funds, treasury services, and international banking services. Further, it provides community development financing, securities underwriting, brokerage, and investment banking services, as well as merchant services. The company was founded in 1849 and is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio.

Wintrust Financial Corporation, a financial holding company, provides community-oriented, personal, and commercial banking services in the United States. It operates through three segments: Community Banking, Specialty Finance, and Wealth Management. The Community Banking segment offers non-interest-bearing deposits, non-brokered interest-bearing transaction accounts, and savings and domestic time deposits; home equity, consumer, and real estate loans; safe deposit facilities; and automatic teller machine, online and mobile banking, and other services. This segment also engages in the retail origination of residential mortgages; provision of lending, deposits, and treasury management services to condominium, homeowner, and community associations; and asset-based lending for middle-market companies. In addition, it provides loan and deposit services to mortgage brokerage companies; lending to restaurant franchisees; direct leasing; small business administration loans; commercial mortgages and construction loans; and financial solutions. The Specialty Finance segment offers commercial and life insurance premiums financing for businesses and individuals; accounts receivable financing, value-added, and out-sourced administrative services, including data processing of payrolls, billing, and cash management services to temporary staffing industry; other specialty finance services; equipment financing through structured loan and lease products; and property and casualty insurance premium financing. The Wealth Management segment provides wealth management services, such as trust and investment, tax-deferred like-kind exchange, asset management, and securities brokerage services. Wintrust Financial Corporation was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Rosemont, Illinois.

Read on to learn how KeyCorp and Wintrust Financial Corporation grade on certain key metrics to see whether it meets your investment needs.

Latest KeyCorp and Wintrust Financial Corporation and Financials Stock News

As of September 8, 2026, KeyCorp had a $23.3 billion market capitalization, putting it in the 87% in its industry. KeyCorp’s stock is up 5.6% in 2026, up 0.8 in the previous five trading days and up 15.05% in the past year. Currently, KeyCorp’s price-earnings ratio is 12.8. KeyCorp’s trailing 12-month revenue is $7.4 billion with a 27.5% profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 10.1%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $1.829 per share for the current fiscal year. KeyCorp currently has a 3.8% dividend yield.

Wintrust Financial Corporation had a $10.3 billion market capitalization, putting it in the 78% in its industry. Wintrust Financial Corporation’s stock is up 9.0% in 2026, up 1.3 in the previous five trading days and up 9.21% in the past year. Currently, Wintrust Financial Corporation’s price-earnings ratio is 12.2. Wintrust Financial Corporation’s trailing 12-month revenue is $2.8 billion with a 32.6% profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 10.2%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $13.098 per share for the current fiscal year. Wintrust Financial Corporation currently has a 1.4% dividend yield.



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Grading KeyCorp and Wintrust Financial Corporation Stock

Stock evaluation requires access to huge amounts of data and the knowledge and time to sift through it all, making sense of financial ratios, reading income statements and analyzing recent stock movement. To help individual investors with that daunting task, AAII created A+ Investor, a robust data suite that condenses data research in an actionable and customizable way suitable for investors of all knowledge levels.

AAII’s proprietary stock grades come with A+ Investor. These offer intuitive A-F grades for each of five key investing factors: value, growth, momentum, earnings revisions and quality. Here, we’ll take a closer look at KeyCorp's stock grades for value, growth and quality.

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KeyCorp and Wintrust Financial Corporation Quality Grade

Company Ticker Quality
KeyCorp KEY D
Wintrust Financial Corporation WTFC F

Like the value grade, AAII’s A+ Investor quality grade comes from the percentile rank of key metrics. Specifically, the quality grade is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of the return on assets (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), gross profit relative to assets, buyback yield, change in total liabilities to assets, accruals, Z double prime bankruptcy risk (Z) score and F-Score.

The score is variable, meaning it can consider all eight measures or, should any of the eight measures not be valid, the remaining measures that are valid. To be assigned a quality score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) measure and corresponding ranking for at least four of the eight quality measures.

The quality score is used to assess the underlying “quality” of a particular stock. A higher quality stock possesses traits associated with upside potential and reduced downside risk. Backtesting of the quality grade shows that stocks with higher quality grades, on average, outperformed stocks with lower grades over the period of 1998 through 2019.

Stocks receive better grades (higher scores) for having higher scores for the quality sub-components and worse grades (lower scores) for lower scores for the sub-components.

KeyCorp has a Quality Score of 21, which is Weak. Wintrust Financial Corporation has a Quality Score of 17, which is Very Weak.

KeyCorp and Wintrust Financial Corporation Momentum Grade

Company Ticker Momentum
KeyCorp KEY C
Wintrust Financial Corporation WTFC C

Momentum grades help uncover stocks experiencing anomalously high rates of return; research finds that stocks with high relative levels of momentum tend to outperform, whereas those with low levels of momentum tend to continue underperforming. Momentum is based on the price change of a stock over a specified period relative to all other stocks.

Typically, AAII looks at the weighted relative strength over the trailing four quarters. The weighted four-quarter relative strength rank is the relative price change for each of the past four quarters. The most recent quarterly price change is given a weight of 40% and each of the three previous quarters are given a weighting of 20%.

KeyCorp has a Momentum Score of 47, which is Average. Wintrust Financial Corporation has a Momentum Score of 45, which is Average.

KeyCorp and Wintrust Financial Corporation Earnings Estimate Grade

Company Ticker Earnings Estimate
KeyCorp KEY C
Wintrust Financial Corporation WTFC C

Earnings estimate revision scores consider the magnitude of a company’s earnings surprise in its last two reported fiscal quarters. Often, positive surprises beget further positive surprises—or at least continued sales growth (the exact opposite is generally true, too)

Estimate revisions offer an indication of what analysts are thinking about the short-term prospects of a firm. Earnings estimate revisions are based on the statistical significance of a firm’s last two quarterly earnings surprises and the percentage change in its consensus estimate for the current fiscal year over the past month and past three months.

KeyCorp has a Earnings Estimate Score of 56, which is Neutral. Wintrust Financial Corporation has a Earnings Estimate Score of 53, which is Neutral.

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Other KeyCorp and Wintrust Financial Corporation Grades

In addition to Momentum, Estimate Revisions and Quality, A+ Investor also provides grades for Value and Growth.

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Growth investing builds on the idea that stocks of companies exhibiting strong, consistent and prolonged growth outperform those of slower-growth companies. AAII measures several dimensions of growth, including year-over-year increases in sales and earnings, long(er)-term historical sales and earnings growth rates and analyst-forecasted long-term earnings growth.

Successful stock investing involves buying low and selling high, so stock valuation is an important consideration for stock selection. Buying stocks that are going to go up typically means buying stocks that are undervalued in the first place, although momentum investors may argue that point.

These 2 key factors, when combined with the above, provide a holistic view into a particular stock. Further, by joining A+ Investor you can see whether KeyCorp or Wintrust Financial Corporation stock passes any of our 60+ stock screens that have outperformed the market since their creation.

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KeyCorp and Wintrust Financial Corporation Stock: Bottom Line

Overall, KeyCorp stock has a Momentum Grade of C, Estimate Revisions Grade of C and Quality Grade of D. Wintrust Financial Corporation stock has a Momentum Grade of C, Estimate Revisions Grade of C and Quality Grade of D.

Whether this makes it a good investment depends on your goals and risk tolerance. AAII can help you figure out both and identify which investments align with what works best for you.

We do so through a program of education that teaches you to invest for yourself and become an effective manager of your own wealth—no more relying on others for your financial independence. You can rely on AAII for timeless articles on financial planning and stock-picking, unbiased research and actionable analysis that makes you a better investor.

A+ Investor adds to that qualitative teaching by giving you a powerful data suite that helps you whittle down investment decisions, find stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that meet your needs and understand your portfolio at a more detailed level.

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