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

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In the latest trading session, Wells Fargo (WFC - Free Report) closed at $29.92, marking a -1.19% move from the previous day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 3.35%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 3.19%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 3.62%.

Heading into today, shares of the biggest U.S. mortgage lender had lost 28.7% over the past month, lagging the Finance sector's loss of 21.57% and the S&P 500's loss of 14.37% in that time.

WFC will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be April 14, 2020. On that day, WFC is projected to report earnings of $0.76 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 36.67%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $19.50 billion, down 9.76% from the year-ago period.

WFC's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $3.73 per share and revenue of $78.97 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of -14.84% and -7.17%, respectively.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for WFC. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-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. 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. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 8.5% lower. WFC currently has a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that WFC has a Forward P/E ratio of 8.11 right now. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 7.91, so we one might conclude that WFC is trading at a premium comparatively.

We can also see that WFC currently has a PEG ratio of 0.76. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. WFC's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.07 as of yesterday's close.

The Banks - Major Regional industry is part of the Finance sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 179, which puts it in the bottom 30% 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.

To follow WFC in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.


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