Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC)
Financials · NYSE · US
Fundamentals
Valuation and ratings
Wells Fargo & Co. trades at $88.07, which is 118% below the $191.75 our discounted cash flow model puts on the business. On that measure alone it screens as undervalued, though a DCF is an argument rather than a measurement, and the market is frequently right about why something is cheap.
Our moat model scores it 50 out of 100, which is a moat, but not a deep one. A moat is a structural reason competitors cannot take the profits away, and it matters more to a long holding period than any single quarter's numbers do.
It changes hands at 13.5 times earnings. Be careful reading that in isolation: for a cyclical business a low P/E arrives at the top of the cycle, when profits are peaking and about to fall, which is exactly when the shares look cheapest and are not.
About Wells Fargo & Co.
Wells Fargo & Company, a financial services company, provides diversified banking, investment, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance products and services in the United States and internationally. It operates through four segments: Consumer Banking and Lending; Commercial Banking; Corporate and Investment Banking; and Wealth and Investment Management. The company's financial products and services includes checking and savings accounts, and credit and debit cards, as well as home, auto, personal, and small business lending services. It also provides personalized wealth management, brokerage, financial planning, lending, private banking, trust and fiduciary products and services; and financial solutions to private, family owned and public companies through products and services including banking and credit products across multiple industry sectors and municipalities, secured lending and lease products, and treasury management. In addition, it offers a suite of capital markets, banking, and financial products and services, such as corporate banking, investment banking, treasury management, commercial real estate lending and servicing, equity, and fixed income solutions, as well as sales, trading, and research capabilities services to corporate, commercial real estate, government, and institutional clients. Wells Fargo & Company was founded in 1852 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.
WFC passes 6 of our 30 screens today
Each screen prints the exact criteria it used, and the circumstances in which it is wrong.
Smart money ownership
33 of the funds we track reported a position in their latest SEC 13F filing. Largest first:
- Capital Research Global, Capital Research Global Investors$5.80B · 0.9% of book
- Dodge & Cox, DODGE & COX$2.48B · 1.4% of book
- Bill Nygren, HARRIS ASSOCIATES L P$1.75B · 1.2% of book
- Richard Pzena, PZENA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT LLC$698.43M · 2.3% of book
- Christopher Davis, DAVIS SELECTED ADVISERS$652.08M · 3.0% of book
A word of warning on reading these figures: a 13F reports the market value of a holding, so a fund that traded nothing at all still appears to have sold when the price fell. We found 102 companies where the standard reading gives the opposite answer. Only the share count is honest.
Common questions
Is Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) undervalued?
Against our discounted cash flow estimate of $191.75, WFC at $88.07 is 118% below fair value. That is one model's answer, not a recommendation, and most of a DCF's output sits in a terminal value nobody can forecast.
Which funds own WFC?
33 of the institutions we track reported a position in WFC in their most recent SEC 13F filing. A 13F is filed up to 45 days after quarter end, so it tells you what a fund held then, not what it holds now.
What is WFC's P/E ratio?
WFC trades at 13.5 times earnings. A low P/E is not automatically cheap: on a cyclical company it is usually a warning that earnings are at a peak.
The full research page for WFC, with financial statements, ownership detail, peer comparison and alerts, is free inside the app.
Data from company filings, exchange quotes and SEC EDGAR 13F disclosures. Quotes are delayed. Metrics we do not have are left out rather than estimated. Educational information, not financial advice.