Wells Fargo shares jump after earnings top Wall Street expectations

Wells Fargo on Friday reported third-quarter earnings that exceeded Wall Street expectations, causing its shares to rise.

Here’s what the bank reported compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

• Adjusted earnings per share: $1.52 vs. $1.28 expected
• Revenue: $20.37 billion versus $20.42 billion expected

Shares of the bank rose more than 4% in morning trading after the results. The better-than-expected earnings came even with a sizeable decline in net interest income, a key measure of what a bank makes on lending.

The San Francisco-based lender posted $11.69 billion in net interest income, marking an 11% decrease from the same quarter last year and less than the FactSet estimate of $11.9 billion. Wells said the decline was due to higher funding costs amid customer migration to higher-yielding deposit products.

“Our earnings profile is very different than it was five years ago as we have been making strategic investments in many of our businesses and de-emphasizing or selling others,” CEO Charles Scharf said in a statement. “Our revenue sources are more diverse and fee-based revenue grew 16% during the first nine months of the year, largely offsetting net interest income headwinds.”

Wells saw net income fall to $5.11 billion, or $1.42 per share, in the third quarter, from $5.77 billion, or $1.48 per share, during the same quarter a year ago. The net income includes $447 million, or 10 cents a share, in losses on debt securities, the company said. Revenue dipped to $20.37 billion from $20.86 billion a year ago.

The bank set aside $1.07 billion as a provision for credit losses compared with $1.20 billion last year.

Wells repurchased $3.5 billion of common stock in the third quarter, bringing its nine-month total to more than $15 billion, or a 60% increase from a year ago.

The bank’s shares have gained 17% in 2024, lagging the S&P 500.