Wells Fargo shares rose on Wednesday after the bank posted better-than-expected earnings and issued strong guidance on net interest income for 2025.
Here's the bank's fourth-quarter report compared to Wall Street expectations, based on a survey of analysts conducted by LSEG:
- Adjusted earnings per share: USD 1.58 against expected USD 1.35
- Income: $20.38 billion against the expected $20.59 billion
Net income rose 47% to $5.1 billion, or $1.43 per share, from $3.45 billion, or 86 cents per share, a year ago. Excluding severance costs of 15 cents per share, Well Fargo earned $1.58 per share, topping the consensus estimate reported by LSEG.
The San Francisco-based lender said it expects 2025 net interest income, a key measure of a bank's earnings on loans, to be 1% to 3% higher than its 2024 result of $47.7 billion dollars.
Wells shares jumped more than 5% on Wednesday.
“Our solid results this quarter cap off 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 benefits of the investments we are making to expand 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 progress on related to risk and control.”
Wells Fargo's investment banking fees rose 59% to $725 million in the fourth quarter from a year earlier.
In the fourth quarter of 2024, the bank repurchased 57.8 million shares, or $4 billion.
The bank's shares increased by almost 43% in 2024, and in January they increased by 6%.
Adjustment: Wells Fargo earned an adjusted $1.58 per share. An earlier version of this story excluded other items from the quarterly result, but LSEG says analysts are only adjusting severance costs.