Prudent lending pays off

Article Excerpt

These two leading banks continue to benefit as more borrowers repay their loans on time. That’s helping them offset weaker demand for new residential mortgages and business loans. As well, both firms continue to cut costs, which gives them more room to raise their dividends. WELLS FARGO & CO. $44 (New York symbol WFC; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 5.3 billion; Market cap: $233.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.8; Dividend yield: 2.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.wellsfargo.com) set aside $652 million to cover bad loans in the three months ended June 30, 2013, down 63.8% from $1.8 billion a year earlier. That helped push up its earnings by 19.7%, to $5.3 billion, or $0.98 a share. A year ago, it earned $4.4 billion, or $0.82 a share. Revenue rose 0.4%, to $21.4 billion from $21.3 billion. Borrowers continue to refinance their mortgages at lower rates, which cuts Wells Fargo’s interest income. However, the bank is doing a good job of…