Is Wells Fargo Back on Track After Earnings?

Banking, finance, and taxes

Published: October 15, 2019 11:15 am

Last Updated: January 30, 2020 2:35 pm

When Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) released its third-quarter earnings report before the opening bell on Tuesday, the mega bank said that it had $0.92 in earnings per share (EPS) and $22.0 billion in revenue. The consensus estimates had called for $1.14 in EPS and revenue of $21.19 billion. In the same period of last year, Wells Fargo said it had EPS of $1.13 and $21.94 billion in revenue.

During the latest quarter, average loans were $949.8 billion, up $2.3 billion from the second quarter. Period-end loan balances were $954.9 billion.

Total average deposits for the quarter were $1.3 trillion, up $22.4 billion from the prior quarter, primarily due to higher commercial deposits, as well as higher retail banking deposits reflecting continued promotional rates and offers.

Book value per common share was $40.48, up from $40.10 in the second quarter and $37.55 in the same period from last year.

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

Community Banking revenues were down 4.9% year over year at $11.24 billion.
Wholesale Banking revenues decreased by 5.0% to $6.94 billion.
Wealth and Investment Management revenues increased 21.7% to $5.14 million.

Allen Parker, interim CEO, commented:

We continued to make progress on our top priorities during the third quarter, and we’re all looking forward to Charlie Scharf’s joining Wells Fargo on October 21 as the company’s Chief Executive Officer and President. It’s been an honor for me to serve as the interim Chief Executive Officer over the past six months, and I want to thank both our management team and all our team members for their hard work during this period of transition. Our continued efforts to transform Wells Fargo and our unwavering commitment to serve our customers resulted during the third quarter in higher branch customer experience survey scores, growth in primary consumer checking customers, and increased loan and deposit balances. We have more work ahead, but I’m confident that our focused efforts and the fundamental strengths of Wells Fargo will continue to enable us to achieve success.

Shares of Wells Fargo traded up 1.5% to $50.05 on Tuesday, in a 52-week range of $43.02 to $55.04. The consensus price target is just $49.40.

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