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Wells Fargo (WFC) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

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Wells Fargo (WFC - Free Report) closed at $45.07 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.75% move from the prior day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.75% gain on the day.

Heading into today, shares of the biggest U.S. mortgage lender had lost 4.02% over the past month, lagging the Finance sector's loss of 2% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.52% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from WFC as it approaches its next earnings report date. In that report, analysts expect WFC to post earnings of $0.94 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 242.42%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $17.75 billion, down 0.46% from the prior-year quarter.

WFC's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $3.87 per share and revenue of $71.03 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +843.9% and -1.81%, respectively.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for WFC should also be noted by investors. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.89% higher. WFC is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that WFC has a Forward P/E ratio of 11.64 right now. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 11.77, which means WFC is trading at a discount to the group.

It is also worth noting that WFC currently has a PEG ratio of 1.14. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. Banks - Major Regional stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 1.42 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Banks - Major Regional industry is part of the Finance sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 175, which puts it in the bottom 32% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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