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Wells Fargo profit beats estimates, cut to interest income forecast weighs on shares

Wells Fargo profit beats estimates, cut to interest income forecast weighs on shares

CTV News6 days ago
This photo shows a Wells Fargo office in New York on Jan. 13, 2021. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
Wells Fargo beat second-quarter profit estimates on Tuesday but cut its 2025 guidance for net interest income, dropping shares of the lender by more than five per cent.
The bank expects its interest income to be roughly in line with the 2024 level of US$47.7 billion. In April, it said NII growth would be at the low end of the one to three per cent range.
Wells Fargo said lower interest income in its markets business led to the NII forecast cut. Analysts and investors had been skeptical about its ability to meet its interest income targets after a slow start to 2025, as elevated interest rates weighed on demand from borrowers.
Last month, the U.S. Federal Reserve lifted Wells Fargo's seven-year US$1.95-trillion asset cap, allowing the bank to pursue unimpeded growth. The bank exceeded that value of assets in the reported quarter.
'We now have the flexibility to proactively grow deposits and to allocate capital to grow loans and our corporate investment bank,' CEO Charlie Scharf told analysts.
'We expect to be more aggressive in our pursuit of consumer and corporate deposits, and we will selectively look to grow loans, though we will be cautious during periods of economic uncertainty.'
The bank had expected its NII, or the difference between what it earns on loans and pays on deposits, to be relatively stable in the first half of 2025, with more growth in the second half.
Wells Fargo CFO Michael Santomassimo told a media briefing the lower NII outlook was driven by allocating more capital to markets businesses with low or no interest income.
Proposed tariff increases by President Donald Trump's administration on U.S. trading partners have caused some clients to be cautious about borrowing, Santomassimo said, but added there has been little impact on credit quality, or borrowers' ability to repay debt.
Wells Fargo's provision for credit losses fell to US$1.01 billion in the quarter from US$1.24 billion a year ago, helping profit grow in the second quarter.
The fourth-largest U.S. lender's net income was US$5.49 billion, or US$1.60 a share, in the three months ended June 30. That compares with US$4.91 billion, or US$1.33 a share, a year earlier.
Excluding one-time costs, the lender earned US$1.54 per share compared with expectations of US$1.41, according to estimates compiled by LSEG.
Investment banking fees rose nine per cent to US$696 million in the quarter, driven by higher advisory fees.
Shares of Wells Fargo are up 12.5 per cent this year.
David Wagner, portfolio manager at Aptus Capital Advisors, said Wells Fargo shares had reached a high valuation after they rallied this year.
'While we remain bullish on Wells Fargo's growth prospects and continued profitability improvement, we believe upside to its EPS (earnings per share) estimates is now appropriately reflected in its premium valuation, limiting near-term upside to WFC shares.'
Defense to offense
Wells Fargo has been focused on fixing its regulatory problems in recent years. While it labored under a US$1.95-trillion cap asset cap, rivals expanded.
With the asset cap lifted and regulatory issues largely in the rearview mirror, Wall Street analysts expect Wells Fargo to attract more investor interest as its profits grow.
'We now have the opportunity to grow in ways we could not while the asset cap was in place and are able to move forward more aggressively,' Scharf said.
Santomassimo said the firm will allocate more capital to its markets business, while continuing to grow in areas of investment banking, especially the middle market segment, and wealth business.
'Of capabilities that we have there, investment banking across both the large corporate space and the middle market and commercial bank space should be an area of growth as well,' he said.
Santomassimo said investment banking activity picked up late in the second quarter and in the third quarter.
'It certainly seems like volumes are picking up,' he said.
Wells Fargo is likely to beef up its wholesale businesses by adding market share in commercial banking, corporate and investment banking and trading, Scharf said previously.
He has said the bank will expand carefully. It has closed this year seven regulatory punishments, known as consent orders, and 13 since 2019. It still has one remaining consent order from 2018.
'The asset cap removal is expected to take some time for benefits to ramp up and be effective at more aggressively growing NII,' said Argus Research director of financial services research Stephen Biggar.
Wells Fargo had 212,804 employees as of June 30, compared with 215,367 at the end of March. Its headcount has fallen every quarter since late 2020.
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Reporting by Arasu Kannagi Basil and Pritam Biswas in Bengaluru and Saeed Azhar in New York; Editing by Lananh Nguyen, Arun Koyyur and Rod Nickel
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