Tight Credit Policies Will Pay Off

Article Excerpt

WELLS FARGO & CO. $29 (New York symbol WFC; Conservative Growth Portfolio; Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 3.3 billion; Market cap: $95.7 billion; WSSF Rating: Average) earned $2.38 a share in 2007, down 3.6% from $2.47 in 2006. If you disregard writedowns of mortgage loans and other one-time items, per-share earnings in 2007 grew 8.9% to $2.69. Revenue rose 10.4%, to a record $39.4 billion from $35.7 billion, thanks to strong growth in deposits, loans and fee income. Bad loans rose to 0.70% of total loans in 2007 from 0.52% in 2006. Wells Fargo’s conservative lending policies have helped it avoid the big writedowns that many large financial institutions have incurred. The company’s growing retail banking and wealth management operations should help offset a slowing housing market in 2008. It may also take advantage of the current situation to expand its presence outside of its core markets in the Western United States. Wells Fargo is a buy. buy…