What happened?

Shares of regional banking company First Citizens BancShares (NASDAQGS:FCNC.A) jumped 8.6% in the afternoon session after the company reported third-quarter 2026 results above Wall Street expectations and authorized a share repurchase plan of up to $1.2 billion. According to the company’s press release, First Citizens reported revenue of $2.43 billion, up 8% from a year earlier, and adjusted earnings of $55.37 a share, up from $44.62 in the third quarter of 2025. Both were well ahead of consensus, which called for revenue of $2.23 billion and adjusted earnings of $45.98 a share.

Chairman and Chief Executive Frank Holding said the quarter beat the company’s own expectations on top-line growth, faster loan and deposit growth, resilient credit, and expense discipline. Loans rose 4.1% to $157.2 billion, led by Fund Banking capital-call lines, and deposits rose 6.8% to $185.3 billion. About $4.9 billion of those deposits, and roughly $650 million of loans, came with 138 branches acquired from BMO on Sept. 4. Net interest income was $1.70 billion. The bank also repaid another $8.0 billion of the FDIC purchase-money note tied to the Silicon Valley Bank deal and bought back $600 million of stock, or 278,828 Class A shares. The new authorization allows repurchases of up to $1.2 billion of Class A common stock through 2027, on top of $711 million still left under the prior plan. Since mid-2024 the company has retired about a quarter of its Class A shares. Credit costs were the offset: the provision was $55 million after a $10 million benefit in the prior quarter, though net charge-offs eased to 0.27% of average loans and nonaccrual loans declined.

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What is the market telling us

First Citizens BancShares’s shares are not very volatile and have only had 3 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful, although it might not be something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.

The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 9 months ago when the stock dropped 8.7% on the news that it reported fourth-quarter results which revealed underlying signs of weakness in profitability and future growth. The bank posted adjusted earnings of $51.27 per share on revenue of $2.44 billion, comfortably ahead of analyst estimates. However, the positive headline numbers were overshadowed by concerns about profitability. The bank's efficiency ratio, a key measure of costs relative to revenue where lower is better, came in at 64.5%, missing analyst expectations and worsening from the prior year. This indicated that the bank's core operations were becoming less profitable. The report also pointed to a weaker outlook, with revenue expected to deteriorate and net interest income projections described as weak for the upcoming year, suggesting future growth could be under pressure.

First Citizens BancShares is up 10.1% since the beginning of the year, and at $2,378 per share, it has set a new 52-week high. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of First Citizens BancShares’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $2,809.

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