Wells Fargo (WFC) pops on Q1 EPS, NII beat

Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) shares are trading higher in pre-open Friday after the bank posted stronger-than-expected numbers for the first quarter.

WFC reported revenue of $20.73B to top the $20.12B expected, while Q1 EPS of $1.23 also came ahead of the expected $1.12. The outperformance was led by a jump in Commercial revenue of 42% year-over-year in the Corporate and Investment banking revenue of 41%.

Net interest income was $13.34B, beating Street’s $13.09B while return on equity was reported at 11.7%, ahead of the 10.5% expected and much better than the 8.7% reported for the year-ago period.

Chief Executive Officer Charlie Scharf commented, “We had strong results in the first quarter including revenue growth from both the fourth quarter and a year ago, and we continued to make progress on our efficiency initiatives. Delinquencies and net charge-offs continued to slowly increase, as expected.”

By Senad Karaahmetovic

You May Also Be Interested In

• Wells Fargo & Company Declares Cash Dividends on Preferred Stock
• Netflix climbs following Ackman stake, up 1.8%
• UBS sees a very attractive entry point in this French telecom stock