Wells Fargo shares climbed Wednesday after the bank reported better-than-expected earnings and issued strong guidance on net interest income for 2025.
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: $1.42 vs. $1.35 expected
- Revenue: $20.38 billion versus $20.59 billion expected
Net income of $5.1 billion, or $1.43 per diluted common share, came in 47% higher than the figure from the fourth quarter in the year prior.
The San Francisco-based lender said it expects 2025 net interest income, a key measure of what a bank makes on loans, to be 1% to 3% higher than 2024’s number of $47.7 billion.
Shares of Wells jumped nearly 2% in premarket trading Wednesday following the release of earnings.
“Our solid performance this quarter caps 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 benefit from investments we are making to increase our growth and improve how we serve our customers and communities, we maintained a strong balance sheet, we returned approximately $25 billion of capital to shareholders, and we made significant progress on our risk and control work.”
Wells Fargo’s investment banking fees jumped 59% to $725 million in the fourth quarter compared with a year earlier.
The bank repurchased 57.8 million shares, or $4.0 billion, of common stock in fourth quarter 2024.
Shares of the bank surged nearly 43% in 2024, and the stock is up 1.4% so far in January.