Wells Fargo Rises Pre-Market After Q4 Earnings Beat, Strong 2025 Guidance: Retail Sentiment Hits Year-High

Shares of Wells Fargo & Co (WFC) rose over 3% in Wednesday’s pre-market session after the lender reported upbeat fourth-quarter earnings and announced solid guidance for 2025.

The lender reported a marginal rise in its fourth-quarter (Q4) revenue to $20.38 billion compared to a Wall Street estimate of $20.57 billion. Earnings per share (EPS) came in at $1.43 versus an estimated $1.34.

Wells Fargo reported a 47% year-over-year (YoY) rise in Q4 net income to $5.08 billion. Net interest income (NII), the difference between interest earned and expended, fell 7% YoY to $11.84 billion, driven by deposit mix and pricing changes, the impact of lower rates on floating rate assets, and lower loan balances.

CEO Charlie Scharf highlighted that the bank’s earnings benefited from its decisions to exit or scale back certain businesses, decrease reliance on NII by growing fee-based revenues, increase investments in core businesses, and efforts to increase efficiencies.

"Strong fee-based revenue growth, up 15% from a year ago, largely offset the expected decline in net interest income,” he said.

Wells Fargo’s non-performing assets were down $448 million, or 5%, driven by lower commercial real estate non-accrual loans. The lender reported a 15% YoY decline and a 3% quarter-on-quarter rise in its provisions for credit losses to $1.09 billion.

The bank also reported a 59% rise in Investment banking fees to $270 million on increased activity in equity and debt capital markets and higher advisory fees.

For 2025, Wells Fargo expects NII to be approximately 1% to 3% higher than the 2024 figure of $47.7 billion.

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment jumped into ‘extremely bullish’ territory (94/100), hitting a year-high level. The move was accompanied by ‘extremely high’ retail chatter (96/100).

WFC’s Sentiment Meter and Message Volume as of 8:19 a.m. ET on Jan. 15, 2025 | Source: Stocktwits

Wells Fargo repurchased 57.8 million shares, or $4 billion, of its common stock in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Meanwhile, one Stocktwits user commended the positive earnings.

Notably, Wells Fargo shares have gained over 52% over the past year.

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