Wells Fargo Shares rose on Wednesday after the bank reported better-than-expected earnings and issued strong net interest income guidance for 2025.
Here’s what the bank posted for the fourth quarter compared to what Wall Street expected, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:
- Adjusted earnings per share: $1.58 vs. $1.35 expected
- Income: $20.38 billion versus expectations of $20.59 billion
Net income rose 47% to $5.1 billion, or $1.43 a share, from $3.45 billion, or 86 cents a share, a year ago. After excluding severance costs of 15 cents per share, Well Fargo earned $1.58 per share, beating the consensus estimate reported by LSEG. Revenues fell slightly to $20.38 billion from a year earlier.
The San Francisco-based lender said it expects net interest income in 2025, a key measure of what the bank earns on loans, to be 1% to 3% higher than the 2024 figure of $47.7 billion.
Wells shares jumped more than 5% on Wednesday.
“Our solid performance this quarter marks a year of significant progress for Wells Fargo,” CEO Charlie Scharf said in a statement. “Our earnings profile continues to improve, we are seeing the benefit of the investments we are making to increase our growth and improve the way we serve our customers and communities, we have maintained a strong balance sheet, we have returned approximately $25 billion of capital to shareholders and we have made significant operational progress on risk and control.”
Wells Fargo’s investment banking fees jumped 59% to $725 million in the fourth quarter compared with a year earlier.
The bank repurchased 57.8 million shares, or $4 billion, of common stock in the fourth quarter of 2024.
The bank’s shares are up nearly 43% in 2024, and so far in January, the stock is up 6%.
Correction: Wells Fargo earned $1.58 per share on an adjusted basis. An earlier version of this story excluded other items from the quarterly result, however, analysts are only adjusting for severance costs, according to LSEG.