Wells Fargo Slips on Mixed Results

Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) reported its second-quarter financial results before the markets opened on Friday. The megabank said that it had $1.07 in earnings per share (EPS) and $22.2 billion in revenue, compared with consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters that called for $1.01 in EPS and $22.47 billion in revenue. The same period of last year reportedly had $1.01 in EPS and $22.26 billion in revenue.

Total average loans were $956.9 billion in the second quarter, down $6.8 billion (1%) from the first quarter.

Total average deposits for second quarter 2017 were $1.3 trillion, stable from the prior quarter, as growth in consumer and small business deposits was offset by lower commercial deposits.

Capital levels remained strong in the second quarter, with a Common Equity Tier 1 ratio (fully phased-in) of 11.6%, compared with 11.2% in the prior quarter. The company has a book value per share of $36.53 and a tangible book value per share of $30.64, both well below the current price level.

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In terms of its business segments, Wells Fargo reported:

• Community Banking had revenues of $12.29 billion, up less than 1% from last year.
• Wholesale Banking had revenues of $6.95 billion, down 4.5%.
• Wealth and Investment Management had revenues of $4.18 billion, up 6.7%.

Tim Sloan, CEO of Wells Fargo, commented:

Second quarter 2017 results demonstrated the benefit of our diversified business model as we continued to generate strong financial results, invest for the future, and adhere to our prudent risk discipline. We remain committed to reducing expenses and improving the efficiency of our company, and we are very focused on our recently announced goals. As we work to improve our efficiency, we will also continue to innovate for the future. We recently advanced a number of important customer-focused initiatives, such as the launch of the ZelleSM person-to-person payment platform to our 28 million digital customers. As always, our success starts with our customers, and I appreciate the effort of our 271,000 team members in helping our customers succeed financially. We continued to make progress this quarter in our efforts to rebuild trust and build a better Wells Fargo and, while there is still more work ahead of us, we are on the right track and I am confident about our future.

Shares of Wells Fargo closed Thursday at $55.60, with a consensus analyst price target of $58.19 and a 52-week range of $43.55 to $59.99. Following the release of the earnings report, the stock was initially down 1.3% at $54.93 in early trading indications Friday.

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