Wells Fargo will overcome recent setbacks

Article Excerpt

WELLS FARGO & CO. $53 (New York symbol WFC; Income Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 4.9 billion; Market cap: $259.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.0; Dividend yield: 2.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.wellsfargo.com) is the third-largest U.S. bank by assets ($1.92 trillion as of March 31, 2018), after J.P. Morgan (No. 1) and Bank of America (No. 2). The bank has three main businesses: Community Banking (52% of its 2017 earnings) provides a wide variety of financial services to consumers and small businesses such as chequing and savings accounts, credit cards and mortgages; Wholesale Banking (37%) provides larger business clients with loans, real estate and equipment financing, and insurance; and Wealth and Investment Management (11%) specializes in retirement planning and brokerage services. Quick response to scandal The U.S. Federal Reserve recently ordered Wells Fargo to halt any activity that would increase its total assets. The Fed put the restriction in place because of the over 2 million unauthorized accounts the bank’s employees opened in an effort to…