Wells Fargo expect good Q1 performance

by Richard Kilner

Story link: Wells Fargo expect good Q1 performance

Wells Fargo & Company has today stated its expectation of a record net income in Q1 of $3bn.

Should the forecast prove accurate it would equate to $0.55 per common share after preferred dividends.

Wells Fargo will report its Q1 results in full on 22 April.

The firm’s chief executive officer, John Stumpf, has expressed his confidence by stating that he believes its operating margins will remain at the top of its peer group.

In addition to a possibly record breaking net income, Wells Fargo expects revenue to total around $20bn, and pre-tax pre-provision profit of approximately $9.2bn.

Stumpf has also said that the acquisition of Wachovia had been everything he had hoped for, and that its performance had exceeded expectations in Q1.

Wells Fargo now serves almost a third of US households following its takeover of Wachovia, and has benefited from enormous cross-sell revenue synergies.

Naturally the actual Q1 performance may differ either positively or negatively compared to the firm’s expectations, but Wells Fargo is clearly confident it enjoyed a good first quarter in 2009, particularly compared with the $2.55bn net loss of Q4 2008 which was partially due to risk reduction and merger activities.