Sifting through countless of stocks in the Banks industry can be tedious, and sometimes two stocks are just too similar to judge which is the better investment. If you’re on the fence about investing in First Citizens BancShares, Inc. or Wintrust Financial Corporation because you’re not sure how they measure up, it’s important to compare them on a few factors before making your decision.

Read on to learn how First Citizens BancShares, Inc. and Wintrust Financial Corporation compare based on key financial metrics to determine which better meets your investment needs.

About First Citizens BancShares, Inc. and Wintrust Financial Corporation

First Citizens BancShares, Inc. operates as the holding company for First-Citizens Bank & Trust Company that provides retail and commercial banking services to individuals, businesses, and professionals in the United States and internationally. It operates through the General Bank, Commercial Bank, and Rail segments. The General Bank segment offers deposit products, including checking, savings, money market, and time deposit accounts; conforming and jumbo residential mortgage, and business and commercial loans; brokerage, investment advisory, private stock loans, other secured and unsecured lending products, and vineyard development loans; planning-based financial strategies, family office, financial planning, tax planning, and trust services; and payment and treasury services. This segment also includes a community association bank business that supports deposit, cash management, and lending to homeowner associations and property management companies. Its Commercial Bank segment provides a range of leasing, capital markets, asset management, and other financial and advisory services; factoring, receivable management, supply chain financing, and secured financing services; and commercial deposit products and services through online and mobile banking platforms, as well as physical locations. The Rail segment offers customized leasing and financing solutions on a fleet of railcars and locomotives to railroads and shippers. Its railcar types include covered hopper cars used to ship grain and agricultural products, plastic pellets, sand, and cement; tank cars for energy products and chemicals; gondolas for coal, steel coil and mill service products; open-top hopper cars for coal and aggregates; boxcars for paper and auto parts; and centerbeams and flat cars for lumber. First Citizens BancShares, Inc. was founded in 1898 and is headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina.

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.

Latest Banks and First Citizens BancShares, Inc., Wintrust Financial Corporation Stock News

As of June 18, 2026, First Citizens BancShares, Inc. had a $23.8 billion market capitalization, compared to the Banks median of $720.4 million. First Citizens BancShares, Inc.’s stock is NA in 2026, NA in the previous five trading days and up 14.55% in the past year.

Currently, First Citizens BancShares, Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 11.9. First Citizens BancShares, Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $9.1 billion with a 24.7% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 4.9%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $175.687 per share for the current fiscal year. First Citizens BancShares, Inc. currently has a 0.4% dividend yield.

Currently, Wintrust Financial Corporation’s price-earnings ratio is 12.9. Wintrust Financial Corporation’s trailing 12-month revenue is $2.7 billion with a 32.0% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 10.4%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $13.025 per share for the current fiscal year. Wintrust Financial Corporation currently has a 1.4% dividend yield.

How We Compare First Citizens BancShares, Inc. and Wintrust Financial Corporation Stock Grades

Stock evaluation requires access to huge amounts of data and the knowledge and time to sift through it all, make sense of financial ratios, read income statements and analyze recent stock movements. 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, to help investors streamline and work through such data.

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 estimate revisions and quality. Here, we’ll take a closer look at First Citizens BancShares, Inc. and Wintrust Financial Corporation’s stock grades to see how they measure up against one another.

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First Citizens BancShares, Inc. and Wintrust Financial Corporation Growth Grades

Company	Ticker	Growth
First Citizens BancShares, Inc.	FCNC.A	D
Wintrust Financial Corporation	WTFC	A

The foundation of growth investing is seeking out stocks of companies exhibiting strong, consistent and prolonged growth that is expected to continue into the future.

In order to compute the growth score and assign it a letter grade, the percentile ranks for each of three components‐consistency of annual sales growth, five-year sales growth rankings adjusted for extreme levels, and consistency of positive annual cash from operations‐must be determined. These three rank figures are added together, and the sum is ranked against the entire stock universe to arrive at a company’s Growth Score to create an equal distribution of grades.

The companies in the bottom 20% of the stock universe receive Growth Grades of F, considered to be very weak, while those in the top 20% receive A grades, which are considered very strong.

First Citizens BancShares, Inc. has a Growth Score of 32, which is Weak. Wintrust Financial Corporation has a Growth Score of 89, which is Very Strong.

The Growth Grade Winner: Wintrust Financial Corporation

As you can clearly see from the Growth Grade breakdown above, Wintrust Financial Corporation has a more attractive growth grade than First Citizens BancShares, Inc.. For investors who focus solely on how a company is growing relative to other companies in the same industry, Wintrust Financial Corporation could be a good stock to add to their portfolio. However, it’s important for investors to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

First Citizens BancShares, Inc. and Wintrust Financial Corporation’s Quality Grades

Company	Ticker	Quality
First Citizens BancShares, Inc.	FCNC.A	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 Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of 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 the 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 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 subcomponents and worse grades (lower scores) for lower scores for the subcomponents.

First Citizens BancShares, Inc. has a Quality Score of 30, which is Weak. Wintrust Financial Corporation has a Quality Score of 17, which is Very Weak.

The Quality Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither First Citizens BancShares, Inc. or Wintrust Financial Corporation has a high enough Quality Grade to be considered a “winner.” Investors who are considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolios. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if First Citizens BancShares, Inc. or Wintrust Financial Corporation is the better investment when it comes to quality.

First Citizens BancShares, Inc. and Wintrust Financial Corporation’s Estimate Revisions Grades

Company	Ticker	Earnings Estimate
First Citizens BancShares, Inc.	FCNC.A	C
Wintrust Financial Corporation	WTFC	B

Earnings estimate revisions 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. 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.

First Citizens BancShares, Inc. has a Earnings Estimate Score of 60, which is Neutral. Wintrust Financial Corporation has a Earnings Estimate Score of 62, which is Positive.

The Earnings Estimate Revisions Grade Winner: Wintrust Financial Corporation

As you can clearly see from the Earnings Estimate Revisions Grade breakdown above, Wintrust Financial Corporation has a better Earnings Estimate Revisions Grade than First Citizens BancShares, Inc.. For those who are specifically looking for companies with better short-term prospects when compared to other companies in the same industry, Wintrust Financial Corporation could be a good stock to invest in. However, it’s important to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

Other First Citizens BancShares, Inc. and Wintrust Financial Corporation Grades

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

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.

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 First Citizens BancShares, Inc. and Wintrust Financial Corporation pass any of our 60+ stock screens that have outperformed the market since their creation.

So, Which Is the Better Investment, First Citizens BancShares, Inc. or Wintrust Financial Corporation Stock?

Overall, First Citizens BancShares, Inc. stock has a Growth Score of 32, Estimate Revisions Score of 60 and Quality Score of 30.

Wintrust Financial Corporation stock has a Growth Score of 89, Estimate Revisions Score of 62 and Quality Score of 17.

Comparing First Citizens BancShares, Inc. and Wintrust Financial Corporation’s grades, scores and metrics can act as a solid basis to determine whether they may be a good investment or not. You’ll also want to look at your portfolio’s asset allocation as well as your risk tolerance and financial goals to see if either of these stocks would make a good fit for you. AAII can help you figure out which investments align with your individual needs and preferences.

Investors are encouraged to do their own due diligence and research. In this way, individuals can effectively become managers of their own assets‐without having to rely on others for financial independence. You can count on AAII for timeless articles on financial planning and stock-picking, unbiased research and actionable analysis.

A+ Investor adds to our qualitative teaching with a powerful data suite to help you whittle down investment choices to find stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that meet your needs.

AAII Disclaimer

We make no representations or warranties that any investor will, or is likely to, achieve profits similar to those shown, because past, hypothetical or simulated performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Before making an investment decision, you should consider your circumstances and whether the information on our content is applicable to your situation. This information was prepared in good faith, and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions. The full disclaimer can be read here.