Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) beat estimates by one cent last quarter and investors are hoping it can beat them again. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Monday, October 17. Wells Fargo provides financial services in mainly wholesale banking, mortgage banking, consumer finance, equipment leasing, agricultural finance and commercial finance.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts are bullish on this stock with 18 analysts rating it as a buy and only one rating it as a sell. Analysts don't like Wells Fargo & Company as much as competitor JPMorgan Chase & overall. Analysts still rate the stock a Moderate buy, but they are a bit more wary about it compared to three months ago.
  • Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $20.22 billion in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 3.1% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of 73 cents per share. Estimates range from 66 cents to 80 cents.

What our community says:
 CAPS All Stars are solidly behind the stock with 89.7% assigning it an "outperform" rating. The community at large backs the All Stars with 89.3% awarding it a rating of "outperform." Fools are keen on Wells Fargo & Company and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 1,584 posts in the past 30 days. Despite the majority sentiment in favor of Wells Fargo & Company, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

Management:
 Wells Fargo & Company's profit has risen year over year by an average of 25.2% over the past five quarters. Revenue has fallen for the past three quarters.

Now let's look at how efficient management is at running the business. Traditionally, margins represent the efficiency with which companies capture portions of sales dollars. The following table shows net margins over the past four quarters.

Quarter

Q2

Q1

Q4

Q3

Net Margin

17.9%

17%

14.6%

14.6%

One final thing: If you want to keep tabs on Wells Fargo & Company movements, and for more analysis on the company, make sure you add it to your Watchlist.

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