Wells Fargo (WFC) Tops Q4 EPS by 26c

Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) reported Q4 EPS of $1.38, $0.26 better than the analyst estimate of $1.12. Revenue for the quarter came in at $20.86 billion versus the consensus estimate of $18.78 billion.

Chief Executive Officer Charlie Scharf commented, “As I look back on my slightly more than two years at Wells Fargo, I’m incredibly proud of what our team has accomplished as we remake this incredible franchise. We have made sweeping changes to the leadership and culture, made significant progress on our risk, regulatory, and control work, improved the efficiency of the company while investing in our business in a more holistic and aggressive way, and have taken a different approach to our customer- and community-facing responsibilities as a large public company. And those on the front lines have worked fearlessly and tirelessly to support our customers through incredibly difficult circumstances.”

“In 2021, we improved our financial returns, including reducing our expenses and returning a significant amount of excess capital to our shareholders by increasing our dividend and repurchasing $14.5 billion of common stock. We also had strong deposit growth and while loan demand was weak early in the year, loans grew 5% in the second half with growth in both our consumer and commercial portfolios. As the economy continued to recover we saw increased consumer spending, higher investment banking fees, higher asset-based fees in our Wealth and Investment Management business, and strong equity gains in our affiliated venture capital and private equity businesses. We continued to manage credit well and the strong economic environment helped reduce charge-offs to historical lows and our results benefitted from reductions in our allowance for credit losses,” Scharf added.

“The changes we’ve made to the company and continued strong economic growth prospects make us feel good about how we are positioned entering 2022. But we also remain cognizant that we still have a multiyear effort to satisfy our regulatory requirements – with setbacks likely to continue along the way – and we continue our work to put exposures related to our historical practices behind us,” Scharf continued.

“As we look forward, we will continue to be aggressive in driving progress and improvement in our performance, embrace our responsibility to our customers and communities, and I remain incredibly optimistic about our future,” Scharf concluded.

For earnings history and earnings-related data on Wells Fargo (WFC) click here.

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