Wells Fargo to the rescue. First quarter EPS of 56 cents, smacking around the consensus of 41 and otherwise looking highly suspicious. But perhaps we are being unkind.
“The best way to generate capital is to earn it,” said President and CEO John Stumpf. “This has long been the hallmark of our company and we’re now seeing the initial signs of the earnings and capital-generating power of the combined Wells Fargo-Wachovia in our first quarter together, serving one of every three U.S. households. We’re also seeing the benefits of our actions to reduce the risk in the Wachovia portfolio at the close of the merger through write-downs and credit reserve builds. Our talented team has built solid momentum for 2009. We are open for business and we’re gaining wallet share and market share, as we’ve always done in economically challenging times, because we make fewer mistakes than our competitors in the so-called ‘good times’ and have fewer problems to fix.”
Wells Fargo is up not quite one and a half percent.
Wells Fargo Tops Q1 Estimates [Smartrend]
I am mark to market accounting, what is reality?
They “earn it”. Oh Really?
The Ghost of John Houseman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq8Uc5BFogE&feature=PlayList&p=2A73842224DC4D96&index=37&playnext=2&playnext_from=PL
i am a san francisco-based bank, what is a loss?
What is this? Didn’t they already report over a week ago?
@3: The “I am a…” jokes are officially old.
@5 agreed
we should also ban “sarcasm detection equipment jokes” “yahoo message board jokes” and anything that TGFD says
Probably worth noting that their ~$4.4B of mark-to-myth didn’t flow through their income statement, it only contributed to capital levels.
@7 – that addition takes the TCE from 2.9% to 3.3%. not insignificant when you take into account that the gov’t wants to set 3% as the base in the “worst” case scenario of the “stress” test.
I am an “I am a…” joke, what’s an “I am a…” joke?