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

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Wells Fargo (WFC - Free Report) closed at $46.29 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.07% move from the prior day. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.38%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 0.04%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.73%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the biggest U.S. mortgage lender had gained 0.7% over the past month. This has lagged the Finance sector's gain of 1.54% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.19% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from WFC as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be July 16, 2019. In that report, analysts expect WFC to post earnings of $1.16 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 7.41%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $20.92 billion, down 2.95% from the prior-year quarter.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $4.70 per share and revenue of $83.48 billion. These totals would mark changes of +9.81% and -3.39%, respectively, from last year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for WFC. 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.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

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. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.68% lower within the past month. WFC is holding a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell) right now.

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that WFC has a Forward P/E ratio of 9.75 right now. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 10.78, which means WFC is trading at a discount to the group.

It is also worth noting that WFC currently has a PEG ratio of 0.88. 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. WFC's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.32 as of yesterday's close.

The Banks - Major Regional industry is part of the Finance sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 189, putting it in the bottom 27% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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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