Wells Fargo (WFC) Is Dead In the Water Despite CEO's Defense

After getting socked with rampant rumors of a secondary and other more inflammatory things yesterday, Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) executed a full-court-press near the close of trading with the CEO hitting the airwaves with all kinds of goodies for shareholders to hang their hats on.

In an interview with Bloomberg TV today, Wells Fargo's CEO, John Stumpf, said that the bank will not need to raise equity in order to repay the $25 billion in TARP funds it owes. Stumpf was quoted as saying, "We will pay it back, but we're going to pay it back in a shareholder-friendly way. We are now earning capital so quickly, organically, we don't want to dilute our existing shareholders."

Well after ticking higher from the news in the last few minutes of trading yesterday, WFC is fractionally lower today.

Maybe Stumpf should rethink this strategy and go ahead and dilute the hell of the investors to get the stock moving higher. That tactic worked for Citigroup (NSYE: C), Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and other more "fragile" mega-banks.

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