Are Wells Fargo Earnings Good Enough for Investors?

Banking, finance, and taxes

Published: July 16, 2019 9:10 am

Last Updated: January 30, 2020 6:33 pm

Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) released its second-quarter earnings report before the opening bell on Tuesday. The mega bank said that it had $1.30 in earnings per share (EPS) and $21.6 billion in revenue. The consensus estimates had called for $1.15 in EPS and revenue of $20.94 billion. In the same period of last year, it said it had EPS of $0.98 and $21.55 billion in revenue.

During the latest quarter, average loans were $947.5 billion, down $2.6 billion from the first quarter. Period-end loan balances were $949.9 billion.

Total average deposits for the quarter were $1.3 trillion, up $6.9 billion from the prior quarter, primarily due to higher retail banking deposits reflecting increased promotional activity, partially offset by lower Wealth and Investment Management deposits.

Book value per common share was $40.10 and tangible book value per share was $33.68.

In terms of its segments, Wells Fargo reported as follows:

Community Banking revenues were flat year over year at $11.81 billion.
Wholesale Banking revenues decreased by 1.8% to $2.79 billion.
Wealth and Investment Management revenues increased 2.5% to $602 million.

Allen Parker, interim CEO, commented:

In second quarter 2019, we recorded strong earnings and continued to make progress on our top priorities: focusing on our customers and team members; meeting the expectations of our regulators; and continuing the important transformation of our Company. The commitment of our team members to provide outstanding customer service was reflected in higher customer experience survey scores from our branches, continued growth in primary consumer checking customers, and an increase in referred investment assets as a result of the partnership between our Wealth and Investment Management team and our Community Banking team. During the second quarter, we formed a new Strategic Execution and Operations Office that will focus on achieving operational excellence across our businesses to enable us to execute more effectively on our regulatory priorities and further drive our transformation.

Shares of Wells Fargo closed Monday at $46.71, in a 52-week range of $43.02 to $59.53. The consensus price target is $51.12. Following the announcement, the stock was down about 0.6% in early trading indications Tuesday.

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