By Lou Carlozo, Senior Writer, US News & World Report:
WFC avoids controversy and pays investors handsomely – and now it’s the world’s most valuable bank. One of the reasons Wells Fargo’s earnings are so stable is the large bank resembles a consumer with a diversified portfolio, with 90 lines of business divided into four major lines. If you opened up a Wells Fargo (ticker: WFC) checking account with $5,000 a year ago, you made somewhere in the neighborhood of 0.01 percent annual percentage yield. But if you invested that same amount in Wells Fargo stock, then boom – you made yourself more than $640, or close to 13 percent on your money.
But Wells Fargo stock still holds up as an investment with continued bright prospects. Pragnya Pattnaik, senior analyst at The Edge Consulting Group, says that Wells Fargo “has managed to perform better than most of its peers primarily through gains in market share, lower equity capital requirements and expanding relationships through cross-selling.” And according to Pattnaik, WFC stock has lower volatility; its adjusted net earnings are up more than 4 percent between fiscal years 2013 and 2014, while Bank of America’s are down close to 58 percent. And since 2012, it’s the only bank to report steady rises year to year. Bank of America. Citicorp, JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and PNC Financial Services (PNC) have all bounced up and down over the same stretch…