Wells Fargo (WFC)

[usmbtech]

Wells Fargo is currently trading at 15.72, near a 52week low. Time to buy?

Shares were off about 3% after the bank tacked on a $328 million charge to its fourth-quarter results.

Although:

Feb 13 (Reuters) - RBC Capital Markets said the management of Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) seemed confident about surviving the current downturn better than most, but the company sees more problems for community banks.

After a meeting with Wells Fargo's management, RBC analyst Joe Morford said rising unemployment could lead to consumer credit losses, but the fourth-largest U.S. bank expects to absorb them by growing net interest income.

"Wells pointed to many favorable trends in the mortgage business currently including increased refinancings, a steeper yield curve, improved margins, and a more rationale competitive environment," Morford said.

The company's capital levels seem adequate and it was unlikely that it would cut its dividend in the near term, Morford said.

But Standard & Poors analyst Stuart Plesser said a dividend cut may be in the offing as it is unlikely the company will earn its dividend amount in 2009.

RBC's Morford, who kept his "outperform" rating on the company's stock, cut his price target on the stock to $21 from $25.

On Thursday, the San Francisco-based bank increased the size of its previously reported fourth-quarter loss by 7 percent due to new investment losses.

Morford doesn't see this as a material adjustment, and said the loss had been included earlier as part of other comprehensive income in the equity account, and so the non-cash charge will not have any effect on Wells' capital ratios.

Shares of the company were trading down 58 cents at $16.22 Friday morning on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Bangalore; Editing by Pratish Narayanan)

 

[waltky]

Whistleblower to testify in Wells Fargo probe...

U.S. Justice Dept. orders whistleblower to testify in Wells Fargo probe
Dec 23 2016 - The U.S. Department of Justice has subpoenaed a high-profile whistleblower in its criminal investigation into Wells Fargo & Co's opening of accounts without customer permission.

U.S. prosecutors in San Francisco have asked Wells Fargo banker Yesenia Guitron, who lost a private lawsuit against the fourth-largest lender, to testify before a grand jury in San Francisco on Tuesday, according to a subpoena dated Dec. 12, which was seen by Reuters. A Wells Fargo spokesman declined to comment.

Guitron is among at least five Wells Fargo employees who sued the bank or filed complaints with regulators alleging that they were fired after reporting the opening of customer accounts without their permission, according to a Reuters review of lawsuits and complaints to the U.S. Labor Department. The suits and complaints, filed between 2010 and 2014, raise questions about how early Wells Fargo knew about such allegations and how it handled them. San Francisco-based Wells Fargo reached a settlement with U.S. regulators and the Los Angeles city attorney in September.

The Justice Department subpoena directs Guitron to bring all documents related to her employment at Wells, including any related to sales practices, discipline "or other form of retaliation taken against you by Wells Fargo or Wells Fargo employees." Guitron and her lawyer were not immediately available for comment. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California, which issued the subpoena, declined comment.

A Wells Fargo branch is seen in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois​

The bank has acknowledged opening as many as 2 million accounts without customer permission, and it fired 5,300 employees for the behavior. Former staffers have publicly described a culture where they were pushed into hitting unrealistic sales targets and opened the sham accounts to do so. Wells Fargo chief executive John Stumpf resigned in October after intense questioning before Congress. Beyond the Justice Department probe, Wells Fargo is facing others from various lawmakers and regulators, including a criminal probe by the California attorney general's office.

Guitron and another personal banker, Judi Klosek, filed complaints with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, as well as a joint federal lawsuit in 2010, claiming Wells Fargo retaliated against them for blowing the whistle on similar conduct. Guitron alleged that managers responded by falsifying a paper trail that purported to document her poor performance, forbidding her from taking family medical leave and firing her improperly. A federal judge ultimately dismissed all of Guitron's claims, saying Wells Fargo was justified in firing her because she failed to meet sales quotas and refused to meet with management.

U.S. Justice Dept. orders whistleblower to testify in Wells Fargo probe

 

[yiostheoy]

WFB is going to need to pay some hefty penalties.

I doubt they have even accrued them yet.

The stock is going to keep sliding therefore.

Can't believe this happened there. You can't make this up.