Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) ($49 per share) is one of the country’s largest banks, but it has avoided most of the headaches (and risks) associated with the global “money center” banks. It has a strong, conservative lending culture and it added an enormous quantity of cheap deposits during the financial crisis of 2007-09 by acquiring troubled banks. (It also has Warren Buffett (Trades,Portfolio), as a 10% owner, looking over its shoulder.) Wells has suffered compressed net interest margins (as has Redwood) in this period of artificially low rates, yet its earnings have grown to over $4 per share in fiscal year 2014 and again in 2015. When interest rates rise, Wells Fargo’s margins should widen, earnings should increase and the price investors are willing to pay for those earnings (P/E) may increase.
From Wallace Weitz (Trades, Portfolio)'s First Quarter Value Matters.
