Wells Fargo, BlackRock Report Fourth Quarter Earnings

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) shares now have a mean rating of 2.60 while 11 analysts have recommended the shares as “BUY”, 4 commented as “OUTPERFORM” and 13 commented as “HOLD”.

Federal law requires companies to disclose “material” information-anything that could reasonably alter the public’s perception of a firm’s value and influence stock market decisions. BOA is deemed to be the most sensitive to interest rate moves among USA banks because of the way its balance sheet is structured.

Number of analysts are covering this stock and now stock has got OUTPERFORM rating from 10 analysts of Thomson Reuters, 3 analysts given HOLD rating to the stock and 0 given UNDERPERFORM rating to Silver Wheaton Corp.

“The robust tenor reflects a humming economy that produces jobs, raises consumer confidence, fuels the stock and housing markets and drives businesses to seek out more loans for expansion as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office”, USA Today said. In Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC)’s last 12 earnings reports, it has beaten EPS estimates 58% of the time.

The primary reason for the increases both before and after the election are interest rates, specifically the speculation that interest rates are going higher.

The net interest margin for the year ended December 31, 2016 was 2.86%, down from 2.95% a year earlier.

Bank of America did particularly well because it stands to benefit more than most if interest rates pick up. The investment management company now holds a total of 6,625,427 shares of Wells Fargo & Co which is valued at $359,363,160 after selling 1,573,624 shares in Wells Fargo & Co, the firm said in a disclosure report filed with the SEC on Jan 10, 2017.Wells Fargo & Co makes up approximately 3.14% of Vontobel Asset Management Inc’s portfolio.

Analysts reporting to Thomson Reuters forecast revenues that may come in 7% higher than a year ago at $20.96 billion, while earnings are projected at $0.38 a share. The stock had a trading capacity of 6.92M shares.

Wells Fargo fired 5,300 of its employees involved in the scandal.

The bank has been dealing with multiple lawsuits and a sharp drop in account openings after it settled with regulators in September over charges that its employees created 2 million accounts without customers’ consent. Launched in 2014, IN2 is funded by the Wells Fargo Foundation and co-administered by the U.S. Billionaire Warren Buffett, one of the world’s most astute investors and major shareholder of the bank, said that he is not giving up on Wells Fargo despite the “Terrible Mistake” it made in the fake accounts scandal.

I briefly mentioned that Bank of America’s profitability metrics have been less-than-stellar recently.

The country’s biggest USA residential lender and servicer, Wells Fargo & Co., pushed up annual home-loan production to a three-year high.

The unit, which includes Wells Fargo Advisors, the Private Bank and Abbott Downing, also faces challenges in the year ahead. The KBW Bank index was up 2 per cent, set for their best day since Dec 1.