Wells Fargo kicks off bank stocks' earnings season

Wells Fargo kicks off bank stocks’ earnings season

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Written on Apr 12, 2024
Reading time 2 minutes
  • Wells Fargo reported its quarterly financial results for Q1 of FY2024 on Friday.
  • The company reported a drop in net income, but stable results overall.
  • Wells Fargo experienced a tough earnings season last quarter, reporting a 40% drop in net income in January.

Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE: WFC), on April 12th, reported a year-on-year decrease in its first-quarter net income for the first earnings report of FY 2024.

Net income for the quarter came in at $4,.61 billion, below Q1 of 2023’s $4.99 billion.

Diluted earnings per common share were reported to be $1.20. In contrast, Q1 of 2023 posted an EPS of $1.23 diluted earnings per common share.

Ahead of the earnings, analysts were broadly forecasting an EPS of around $1,08 per share, lower than that of the Q1 EPS of 2023.

Chief Executive Officer Charlie Scharf commented in a press release this morning that:

Our solid first quarter results demonstrate the progress we continue to make to improve and diversify our financial performance. The investments we are making across the franchise contributed to higher revenue versus the fourth quarter as an increase in noninterest income more than offset an expected decline in net interest income. Net charge-offs were stable from the fourth quarter as credit trends remained consistent with recent performance, and we repurchased $6.1 billion of common stock while maintaining a strong capital
position.”

In Wells Fargo’s previous earnings report, that of Q4 2023, the company saw its net income come in at $3.44 billion – down 40% versus the previous quarter. 

Total revenue was almost flat, albeit marginally increased, at $20.86 billion for the quarter, compared with $20.72 billion in Q1 of 2023.

The company’s noninterest expense increased from $13.67 billion in Q1 2023 to $14.33 billion in Q1 2024.

Shares of Wells Fargo & Co were trading slightly down, at $0.25 or 0.44% lower, in premarket following the earnings print on Friday.