© Reuters. Wells Fargo (WFC) pops on Q1 EPS, NII beat
By Senad Karaahmetovic
Wells Fargo (NYSE:) shares are trading higher in pre-open Friday after the bank posted stronger-than-expected numbers for the first quarter.
WFC revenue of $20.73B to top the $20.12B expected, while Q1 EPS of $1.23 also came ahead of the expected $1.12. The outperformance was led by a jump in Commercial revenue of 42% year-over-year in the Corporate and Investment banking revenue of 41%.
Net interest income was $13.34B, beating Street’s $13.09B while return on equity was reported at 11.7%, ahead of the 10.5% expected and much better than the 8.7% reported for the year-ago period.
Chief executive officer Charlie Scharf commented, “We had strong results in the first quarter including revenue growth from both the fourth quarter and a year ago, and we continued to make progress on our efficiency initiatives. Delinquencies and net charge-offs continued to slowly increase, as expected.”
