A person walks past a Wells Fargo bank in New York City on November 19, 2024.
Charly Triballeau | AFP | Getty Images
Wells Fargo shares climbed Wednesday after the bank reported better-than-expected earnings and issued strong guidance on net interest income for 2025.
Here’s what the bank reported compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:
Adjusted earnings per share: $1.42 vs. $1.35 expected
Revenue: $20.38 billion versus $20.59 billion expected
The San Francisco-based lender said it expects 2025 net interest income, a key measure of what a bank makes on loans, to be 1% to 3% higher than 2024’s number of $47.7 billion.
Shares of Wells jumped nearly 2% in premarket trading Wednesday following the release of earnings.
“Our solid performance this quarter caps a year of significant progress for Wells Fargo,” CEO Charlie Scharf said in a statement. “Our earnings profile continues to improve, we are seeing the benefit from investments we are making to increase our growth and improve how we serve our customers and communities, we maintained a strong balance sheet, we returned approximately $25 billion of capital to shareholders, and we made significant progress on our risk and control work.”
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Check out the companies making headlines in premarket trading. JPMorgan Chase — The banking giant reported fourth-quarter results that beat analyst expectations thanks to strong performances from its fixed income and investment banking businesses. The company earned $4.81 per share on revenue of $43.74 billion. Analysts polled by LSEG expected a profit of $4.11 per share on revenue of $41.73 billion. Shares were up more than 1%. Quantum computing stocks — The group rose after Microsoft announced its new Quantum Ready program for businesses, saying: “We are at the advent of the reliable quantum computing era.” Rigetti Computing jumped 8%, and D-Wave Quantum rallied more than 17.5%. IonQ gained 4.8%. Wells Fargo — The bank reported fourth-quarter earnings that beat the Street’s expectations, sending shares higher by 3.2%. The company earned an adjusted $1.42 per share, beating an LSEG forecast of $1.35 per share. Wells also said it expects net interest income to increase 1%-3% in 2025 from the year-earlier period. Goldman Sachs — Shares climbed 2.1% after the bank blew past fourth-quarter expectations , benefitting from rebound in Wall Street deals and stronger-than-expected trading revenue. Goldman posted earnings of $11.95 a share on revenue of $13.87 billion for the period, while analysts polled by LSEG expected $8.22 a share on revenue of $12.39 billion. Digital Realty Trust — Shares of the real estate stock were 1.7% higher in thin premarket trading after an upgrade to buy from hold at Deutsche Bank . The investment firm said Digital Realty should benefit from continued demand for data centers when some of its below market rate leases expire in the years ahead. BlackRock — Shares were up more than 3.7% after the world’s largest asset manager reported fourth-quarter results that beat expectations. The company earned $11.93 per share on revenue of $5.68 billion. Analysts expected a profit of $11.19 per share on revenue of $5.68 billion. Citigroup — The bank gained more than 3% after reporting fourth-quarter results that beat analyst expectations. Citigroup earned $1.34 per share on revenue of $19.58 billion. Analysts expected a profit of $1.22 per share on revenue of $19.49 billion, per LSEG. — CNBC’s Fred Imbert, Jesse Pound, Sean Conlon and Michelle Fox contributed reporting.
Jane Fraser speaks during the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., on Monday, April 29, 2019.
Kyle Grillot | Bloomberg via Getty Images
Citigroup is set to report its fourth-quarter earnings Wednesday morning ahead of Wall Street’s opening bell.
Here are some of the key metrics to watch and what analysts are expecting from the bank, according to LSEG:
Earnings per share: $1.22
Revenue: $19.49 billion
Growth in investment banking and equity markets revenue helped drive a better-than-expected report for Citi in the third quarter, and those could be sources of strength again in the fourth quarter. Chief financial officer Mark Mason said at a Goldman Sachs conference in December that Citi was seeing investment banking fees and the markets business up double-digit percentages year over year, according to a transcript from FactSet.
Year-over-year comparisons for fourth quarter income metrics may be complicated by charges Citi booked in the final period of 2023.
Investors will also be looking for progress updates about CEO Jane Fraser’s turnaround efforts. Fraser took over the bank in March 2021 and has focused on slimming down the company, including selling off some international units.
Citi’s stock was a strong performer in 2024, rising nearly 37% on the year. The stock is up more than 4% so far this year.
CEO of Chase Jamie Dimon looks on as he attends the seventh “Choose France Summit”, aiming to attract foreign investors to the country, at the Chateau de Versailles, outside Paris, on May 13, 2024.
Lucovic Marin | Getty Images
JPMorgan Chase is scheduled to report fourth-quarter earnings before the opening bell Wednesday.
Here’s what Wall Street expects:
Earnings: $4.11 a share, according to LSEG
Revenue: $41.7 billion, according to LSEG
Net interest income: $23.1 billion, according to StreetAccount
Trading Revenue: Fixed income of $4.42 billion, Equities of $2.37 billion, according to StreetAccount
JPMorgan’s results will be closely watched for signs that industry optimism is warranted.
Banks ended the year with several reasons to be bullish: Wall Street activity has picked up at the same time that Main Street consumers remain resilient, while the election victory of Donald Trump has led to hopes of regulatory relief.
JPMorgan, the biggest American bank by assets, stands to benefit on several fronts.
Last month, executives said that investment banking revenue would surge 45% in the fourth quarter, and that trading revenue would jump about 15%.
Further, the bank said that its latest projection for 2025 net interest income was $2 billion higher than previous guidance, leading analysts to speculate that fourth quarter NII would also top expectations.
While the business is thriving, analysts will likely ask CEO Jamie Dimon about his succession planning after his No. 2 executive, Daniel Pinto, said he was stepping down as chief operating officer in June. Dimon signaled last year that he was likely to step down as CEO within five years.
Another question is how the changing outlook for Federal Reserve rate cuts will impact the bank across its sweeping operations. While Fed officials expect two more cuts this year, economic indicators could cause them to pause.
Finally, analysts may press JPMorgan on what it intends to do with a possible windfall of capital if Trump regulators present a gentler version of the Basel 3 Endgame, as potential nominees have supported. Dimon said last May that share buybacks would be muted because the stock was expensive, but they’ve only climbed since.
Besides JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and Citigroup are also reporting quarterly and full-year results Wednesday, while Bank of America and Morgan Stanley are due to report on Thursday.
This story is developing. Please check back for updates.