GetCoattail Research — The Filing Tape #68. Citigroup just beat third-quarter estimates on October 13. The filings that predate that print describe a different register: eight tracked superinvestors who all trimmed or stood still in the second quarter, a broad market that added 157 million shares underneath, an insider record with no purchase in 187 filings, and a borrow that has halved from its 2022 peak.
The Hype
Citigroup reported third-quarter 2026 results before the open on October 13: earnings of $2.85 per share against a Zacks consensus estimate of $2.66, and revenue of $23.85 billion against an estimate of $23.66 billion, up 7.9% from a year earlier. It was the bank's fourth consecutive earnings beat — the second quarter had printed $3.15 per share against a $2.74 consensus, on revenue of $24.77 billion. Analysts entered the print leaning positive: the MarketBeat consensus in early October was a moderate buy from 18 analysts, with an average target of $151.28, and TD Cowen resumed coverage on October 8 with a buy rating and a $150 target. The stock was also near the top of MarketBeat's financial-stocks list for October 13, ranked second behind JPMorgan Chase among the names in that screen. The price had already moved before any of this. On our daily-close file Citigroup rose 23.4% in the second quarter, from $113.41 at March 31 to $139.96 at June 30, then eased to $128.50 by October 2 — down 11.8% from its 252-session closing high of $145.67 on June 22, 2026, and up 10.1% year to date. The question the filings answer is who was holding the stock while it rose.
The Tape
For Citigroup — the sixty-eighth Filing Tape audit — the tape shows a tracked cohort trimming into strength, a full market adding shares, an insider purchase line that has never printed, no congressional row, a thin passive 5% register, and a borrow well below its peak.
| Lens | As of | What the filings show | Direction vs prior period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Superinvestors (13F) | Jun 30, 2026 | 8 long holders; 20,664,062 shares; $2,892,142,245 | Shares -15.02% vs Q1; 7 cut, 1 unchanged, 0 raised |
| All institutions (13F) | Jun 30, 2026 | 2,644 filers; 1,325,536,358 shares | Filers +211; shares +13.45% |
| Insiders (Form 4) | Oct 2, 2026 | 0 purchases in the entire parsed record; 28 sales | Last 90 days: 0 purchases, 0 sales |
| Congress | Oct 3, 2026 | No C row in the combined, House or Senate aggregates | No trade recorded in coverage |
| 13D/G | Apr 29, 2026 | 3 parsed filings, all SC 13G; register maximum 7.22% (Vanguard Capital Management) | No repeat chain prints twice in the covered window |
| Short interest (FINRA) | Sep 15, 2026 | 24,673,143 shares; 1.41% of shares outstanding | -49.5% vs series peak; -32.0% vs a year ago |
Lens 1 — the superinvestors: eight holders, none of them adding. We track 83 large, mostly long-only managers whose 13F portfolios we collect directly from SEC EDGAR. As of June 30, 2026, 8 held Citigroup long, totalling 20,664,062 shares worth $2,892,142,245, with no option rows. The largest holder is Bill Nygren's Oakmark Funds, with 8,751,443 shares worth $1,224,851,925, a 1.62% portfolio weight — 42.4% of the cohort's Citigroup shares. The direction labels tell the quarter's story: seven holders decreased and one was unchanged; none increased and none was new. Richard Pzena's firm cut 32.1%, Sarah Ketterer's Causeway cut 27.7% and Harry Burn's Sound Shore cut 20.4%; even Oakmark cut 5.6%. On the pipeline's holdings files, on the same CUSIP basis, the cohort held 24,317,220 shares across 8 rows at March 31, so the second quarter removed 3,653,158 shares (-15.02%) while the price rose 23.4%. The exit list contains no Citigroup row. The position's implied price, $139.96, sits exactly on the June 30 close. 13F figures are as of June 30, 2026; funds have up to 45 days to file, so this picture is complete — and always lagging.
Lens 2 — institutions: 211 more filers, 157.2 million more shares. At June 30, 2026, 2,644 institutions reported positions, up 211 from 2,433 at March 31 (+8.67%), 2,630 of them long. Reported shares rose 13.45%, from 1,168,341,819 to 1,325,536,358 shares — up 157,194,539 shares in the same quarter the tracked cohort was cutting. Reported aggregate value rose 39.57% to $189,277,462,342; the aggregate includes option rows, so we headline filer and share counts and label dollars "reported" (see methodology).
Lens 3 — insiders: no purchase in the entire parsed record. The parsed Form 4 record holds 187 filings through October 2, 2026. Across the whole record, purchases total 0 transactions — in every window, for officers and non-officers alike. Sales total 28 transactions totalling 408,220 shares and $40,474,027.95, by 13 sellers, 25 of them officer sales. The last year holds 110 filings with 11 sales — 195,314 shares for $23,042,689.03, by eight sellers — and the last 90 days hold 10 filings with no purchase and no sale at all. This record is mostly quiet rather than one-sided; what it has never contained, at any price in the file — including the $93.93 closing low of October 10, 2025 — is an insider paying market price for a share. We assign no motives.
Lens 4 — Congress: no row, in either chamber. The combined congressional record (as of October 3, 2026) carries no Citigroup row at all — and neither do the House aggregate (October 3, 2026) or the Senate aggregate (October 1, 2026).
Lens 5 — the 5% register: three filings, all passive, none recent. Our full parse holds exactly 3 SC 13D/G filings for Citigroup — one SC 13G and two SC 13G/A, and no SC 13D filing of any kind — 3 reporting-person rows across 3 names as filed, most recently filed April 29, 2026, matching the site aggregate on every field. The register's maximum is Vanguard Capital Management at 126,457,408 shares (7.22%) as of March 31, 2026. BlackRock, Inc. prints a single row, 129,265,958 shares (6.9%) as of March 31, 2025. The Vanguard Group prints 0 shares (0.0%) as of March 13, 2026, while Vanguard Capital Management prints a separate row under its own name; we report them as filed and do not merge them. No reporting person prints twice in the covered window, so this register offers no chain to follow — only three dated snapshots, the newest now more than five months old.
Lens 6 — short interest: 24,673,143 shares, half its peak. As of September 15, 2026 — the most recent of 137 FINRA settlements since January 15, 2021 — 24,673,143 Citigroup shares were sold short, down 5.81% from the prior settlement's 26,196,181 shares on August 31, 2026. The series maximum is 48,901,202 shares on June 30, 2022 — verified by a maximum query over the whole series — so the latest sits 49.5% below that peak. The last five settlements read 28,765,148, 24,686,076, 29,917,611, 26,196,181 and 24,673,143: a decline with repeated upticks. Against the year-ago 36,260,537 shares the latest is down 32.0%; against the June 30, 2026 settlement of 27,205,962 shares it is down 9.3%. Against 1,749,319,009 shares outstanding, it is 1.41% of the share count, at 2.85 days to cover.
The Gap
The narrative describes a bank beating estimates for a fourth straight quarter: $2.85 against $2.66 expected, revenue up 7.9%, a $151.28 consensus target against a $128.50 close on October 2. The filings that predate that print describe trimming at the top of the register and accumulation underneath it. The tracked superinvestors held 24,317,220 shares at March 31; at June 30 they held 20,664,062 — down 3,653,158 shares, with seven of eight holders cutting and none adding, in a quarter when the price rose 23.4%. The full market moved the other way: 1,325,536,358 reported shares, up 157,194,539, across 2,644 filers. The 5% register printed three filings, all passive, none since April. Insiders recorded no purchase in 187 filings, ever, in our parse, against 28 sales; the last 90 days recorded neither. Congress records nothing. And the borrow stands at 24,673,143 shares — 49.5% below its June 2022 peak, 32.0% below a year ago, 1.41% of the shares outstanding. One plausible reading is that the second quarter's rise was carried by the broad register while the tracked cohort took shares off. The record supports each clause separately; it does not say whether the broad register is early or the narrow one is right.
What Would Change the Picture
Nothing above is a recommendation. It is a record. These are the filings that would change the description:
- 1. The 2026Q3 13Fs (filing window closing mid-November 2026). The cohort held 20,664,062 shares at June 30, after cutting 15.02% in a rising quarter, with no holder increasing. Whether any of the eight rebuilds — and whether a ninth tracked manager appears — are the first things the next register answers.
- 2. A first insider purchase, ever, in the parsed record. The record holds zero purchases across 187 filings through October 2, 2026, against 28 sales. A single purchase breaks the pattern.
- 3. A new 5% filing, at any size. The register's latest filing is dated April 29, 2026, and no reporting person prints twice in the covered window. A fresh SC 13G — or a first SC 13D of any kind — restarts this lens.
- 4. Whether the borrow keeps easing, or rebuilds. Short interest stands at 24,673,143 shares, 49.5% below the peak of 48,901,202 and 9.3% below the June 30, 2026 settlement of 27,205,962. A reading above that June settlement reverses the recent easing; one below the series minimum would set a new low for the covered window.
- 5. A first congressional record, at any size, in either chamber. All three aggregates carry no Citigroup row; a single recorded trade gives this lens its first entry.
Until one of those prints, the record describes a stock held by eight of our 83 tracked superinvestors — 20,664,062 shares, trimmed 15.02% in the quarter its price rose 23.4% — whose insiders have recorded no purchase in the entire parsed record, whose 5% register has printed nothing since April, and whose borrow stands at 1.41% of the shares outstanding.
As-of & Limits
The lenses rest on different clocks, none live: 13F is a June 30, 2026 snapshot published up to 45 days later; Form 4 runs through October 2, 2026; Congress through October 3, 2026 (Senate October 1); 13D/G through the April 29, 2026 filing; short interest through September 15, 2026; prices end October 2, 2026. Two limits are specific to this name: the site's 90-day insider aggregate carries no Citigroup row, so Lens 3 rests entirely on the full parse; and the full-market aggregate's reported value implies $142.79 per share against the $139.96 close, so this audit headlines filer and share counts. The third-quarter earnings reported on October 13 postdate every filing lens here. The congressional lens is an absence, stated as such: no trade is recorded in our coverage — not proof that none could exist outside it.
Related reading: One of 83: The Only Superinvestor in PPL Is Brand New. Its Insiders Have Never Bought a Share. — Filing Tape #67; Two of 83: The Superinvestors Cut Reddit 18.9% in Q2. No Officer Has Ever Bought a Share. — Filing Tape #66; Three of 83: Every Superinvestor in Seagate Is New. Its Insiders Have Never Bought a Share. — Filing Tape #65. Citigroup's own page: Citigroup Inc (C) on GetCoattail.
Methodology and data notes
- Superinvestor lens: 83 managers collected directly from SEC EDGAR Form 13F (managers_13f collection), positions as of June 30, 2026; Citigroup identified by CUSIP 172967424. Eight distinct managers hold a long position totalling 20,664,062 shares; there are no option rows for this name in the collection. The direction count on the collection's labels, across the long rows, is seven DECREASED (Bill Nygren - Oakmark Funds, First Pacific Advisors, Harry Burn - Sound Shore, Kahn Brothers Group, Richard Pzena - Pzena Investment Management, Samantha McLemore - Patient Capital Management, Sarah Ketterer - Causeway Capital Management) and one UNCHANGED (Francis Chou - Chou Associates); the collection's exit list contains no Citigroup row. Quarter-to-quarter cohort totals (24,317,220 long shares at March 31; 20,664,062 long shares at June 30, a change of -3,653,158 shares or -15.02%) are from the site pipeline's holdings files on the same CUSIP basis in both quarters, and the pipeline's second-quarter totals match the EDGAR collection exactly on both shares and value (differences of 0 shares and $0). Oakmark's share of the cohort is 42.4% = 8,751,443 / 20,664,062.
- Full-market lens: SEC Form 13F Data Sets full-market aggregation. The primary table is the full13f collection's by-ticker file (holders = distinct filers reporting the CUSIPs; 2,630 reported long positions out of 2,644 filers). Citigroup reports under two CUSIP spellings, 172967424 and 172967101, and the backfill fixtures' by-CUSIP file carries both rows — their share, reported-value and prior-value sums match the by-ticker row exactly; their holder counts sum to 2,645 against the by-ticker 2,644, a difference of one filer that reports both CUSIPs and is counted once in the by-ticker file. The by-ticker file's entered/exited fields (1,918 and 1,707, a net of +211 that matches the change in holder count) are gross flows, so this audit headlines the net change. Reported-value caution: the aggregate value ($189,277,462,342 over 1,325,536,358 shares) implies $142.79 per share against a June 30, 2026 close of $139.96 in our price file, a gap of +2.0% — printed here as found. The aggregate sums the VALUE of every information-table row — including put and call option rows — while the share count covers long common-stock rows only, so we headline filer and share counts and label dollar values "reported."
- Insider lens: full-parse Form 4 aggregation (agg_by_ticker), record as of October 2, 2026 (187 filings). Sale and purchase counts are transaction-code counts (S and P) in non-derivative rows; grants and exercises are not counted as purchases, and one filing can contain many transaction rows. Purchase transactions total 0 across the parsed record (0 shares, $0, zero buyers) and officer purchase transactions total 0 in the 90-day window, the last year and the full record alike (officerBuyTx 0 and officerBuyValUsd $0 in each). Sale transactions total 28 across the record (408,220 shares, $40,474,027.95, 13 sellers, 25 of them recorded as officer sales); the last year holds 11 (195,314 shares, $23,042,689.03, eight sellers, 10 officer sales) alongside no purchases, and the 90-day window holds 0 sales and no purchases across 10 filings. The site's insider aggregate (compiled as of October 13, 2026, 90-day window) carries no Citigroup row at all, so there is no site figure to reconcile against the full parse for this name; this audit prints the full parse as the record. No field of the full-parse aggregate had to be excluded: its sale-value totals imply $117.98 per share for the one-year window and $99.15 across the full record, each inside the traded price range of its window on our price file ($93.93 to $145.67 for the one-year window's dates, and $38.24 to $145.67 across the price file), so all value totals are cited as figures in this article.
- 13D/G lens: full-parse SC 13D/G parsed filings (3 filings matching issuer CIK 831001 on CUSIP 172967424, 3 reporting-person rows across 3 names as filed: one SC 13G filing and two SC 13G/A amendments, no SC 13D filing), filings through April 29, 2026. The site aggregation's by-ticker row for Citigroup (3 filings, 0 D-filings, 3 G-filings, 2 amendments, 3 reporters, latest date April 29, 2026, maximum 7.22% and 255,723,366 reported shares) matches the parsed filings on every field. The parsed reporting-person rows sum to 255,723,366 shares, but that total sums reporting-person rows across different dates, so it is not used as a stake figure in the article. Vanguard Capital Management's row (126,457,408 shares at 7.22% as of March 31, 2026, filed April 29, 2026, SC 13G — the register maximum and its latest filing), BlackRock, Inc.'s row (129,265,958 shares at 6.9% as of March 31, 2025, filed April 24, 2025, SC 13G/A) and The Vanguard Group's row (0 shares at 0.0% as of March 13, 2026, filed March 26, 2026, SC 13G/A) are reported as filed, under the names exactly as they appear. The two Vanguard-named rows are separate reporting persons as filed and are not merged in this audit. The parsed coverage for this issuer holds these 3 filings; a 5% holder that has not filed in the covered window would not appear here.
- Congress lens: Senate PTR archive and House PTR archive as maintained on this site. The combined record (as of October 3, 2026), the House aggregate (as of October 3, 2026) and the Senate aggregate (as of October 1, 2026) each carry no Citigroup row at all, so there is no combined record to decompose: no purchase, sale, member or party field exists for this ticker in any of the three aggregates. This audit reports that absence as the finding, and does not reconstruct individual filers beyond what the aggregates state.
- Short interest lens: FINRA Equity Short Interest files (biweekly settlement dates), collected directly from FINRA's public distribution. The published series covers 137 settlements from January 15, 2021 (26,658,738 shares) to September 15, 2026. The latest reading is 24,673,143 shares on September 15, 2026, down 5.81% from the prior settlement (26,196,181 on August 31, 2026), which had fallen from 29,917,611 on August 14, 2026, following 24,686,076 on July 31 and 28,765,148 on July 15 — the last five settlements decline with repeated upticks rather than trending in a straight line. The series maximum is 48,901,202 shares on June 30, 2022 (verified by a maximum query over the series, not read off the latest row), so the latest reading sits 49.5% below the peak. The year-ago settlement (September 15, 2025) printed 36,260,537 shares, so the latest reading sits 32.0% below a year ago. The series minimum is 21,299,558 shares on April 15, 2021. The June 30, 2026 settlement printed 27,205,962 shares, so the latest reading sits 9.3% below the 13F snapshot date's borrow. FINRA publishes each settlement about two weeks after the fact, so the October price action is not yet in this series. The share-count ratio (1.41%) uses the fundamentals file's shares-outstanding figure below.
- Fundamentals note: our fundamentals collection carries Citigroup's revenue of $85,225,000,000, net income of $14,306,000,000 and assets of $2,657,202,000,000, each labelled fiscal 2025 in the file. The file is marked ok for this name, with no missing fields: shares outstanding of 1,749,319,009 (as of January 31, 2026 in the file, sourced in the file to a dei share count) and a file-computed market value of $224,822,486,510.58. The file's price for the name is $128.52 as of October 6, 2026; our daily-close file ends October 2, 2026 at $128.50, and we keep the two files' figures separate rather than blending them.
- Prices: our own daily-close file for Citigroup through October 2, 2026 ($128.50 close, +10.1% year to date on that file; 252-session closing high $145.67 on June 22, 2026, so the last close sits 11.8% below it; 252-session closing low $93.93 on October 10, 2025; closes of $113.41 at March 31, 2026 and $139.96 at June 30, 2026, a second-quarter change of +23.4%; change from June 30 to October 2 of -8.2%; change from the 252-session low of +36.8%; change from the September 30, 2025 close of $101.50 of +26.6%). The series in our price file begins June 1, 2021 at $79.76 and holds 1,342 rows.
- Market context sources: MarketBeat financial-stocks list for October 13, 2026, as carried by Stock Observer (Citigroup ranked second, behind JPMorgan Chase; checked October 14, 2026); third-quarter 2026 earnings of $2.85 per share against a $2.66 consensus estimate and revenue of $23.85 billion against a $23.66 billion estimate, up 7.9% year over year, as reported by Zacks on October 13, 2026 and cross-checked against StockStory and FX Leaders reports of the same print, checked October 14, 2026; second-quarter 2026 earnings of $3.15 per share against a $2.74 consensus and revenue of $24.77 billion, as reported by MarketBeat and carried by ad-hoc-news in October 2026, checked October 14, 2026; the MarketBeat consensus (moderate buy, 18 analysts, average target $151.28) and the TD Cowen buy resumption with a $150 target on October 8, 2026, as carried by MarketBeat-derived reports on October 8–9, 2026, checked October 14, 2026. Figures we could not confirm against two sources were left out; the external items above are reported speech from those outlets, not GetCoattail measurements.
- Citigroup is in the GetCoattail stock-page universe: Citigroup Inc (C) stock page. Series data: c_lens_data.csv · c_short_interest_series.csv. Earlier audits: PPL · Reddit.
Past patterns are not a promise of future results. For education only — not investment advice.
This article describes public filings as of the dates stated. It is not investment advice and makes no recommendation. Filings lag reality: 13F positions are as of June 30, 2026, and later trading is not yet public.
Revision history
- v1.0 — October 14, 2026: first publication.