WELLS FARGO & CO. $43 - New York symbol WFC

WELLS FARGO & CO. $43

(New York symbol WFC; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 5.3 billion; Market cap: $227.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.7; Dividend yield: 2.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.wellsfargo.com) earned $5.3 billion, or $0.99 a share, in the quarter ended September 30, 2013. That’s up 12.7% from $4.7 billion, or $0.88 a share, a year ago.

These gains are largely the result of more borrowers repaying their loans on time. Loan-loss provisions fell 95.3%, to $75 million from $1.6 billion.

Revenue declined 3.5%, to $20.5 billion from $21.2 billion. Higher interest rates have hurt demand for new mortgages and refinancing of existing loans. Mortgage applications dropped 40.4%, to $87 billion from $146 billion a year earlier.

However, demand for credit cards, car loans and wealth management services remains strong. At the end of the quarter, 36.0% of the bank’s retail customers had a Wells Fargo credit card, up from 32.1% a year ago.

Wells Fargo is a buy.

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