1. Wells Fargo stock today: price, performance and context
As of the close on December 1, 2025, Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) shares changed hands at about $85.4 per share, down just over half a percent on the day and still only a few dollars below their recent record. According to StockAnalysis data, WFC traded in a daily range of roughly $85.2–$86.5 on Monday, with volume a little over 9.2 million shares. [1]
Over the past year, Wells Fargo stock has enjoyed a powerful rerating. On November 12, 2025, shares hit an all‑time high of $88.54, capping a roughly 21–25% gain over the past 12 months and more than 25% year‑to‑date return at that point. [2] Recent quotes place the 52‑week range around $58.4–$88.6, underlining how far the stock has climbed since early 2024. [3]
That rally has pushed Wells Fargo into the top tier of U.S. banks by market value, with a market capitalization around the high‑$260s to high‑$270s billions, depending on the data source and intraday price. [4]
Yet December 1 isn’t just about the price. It’s also dividend payday, the backdrop to a new $85 million securities class‑action settlement, and the first trading day after fresh headlines on Wells Fargo‑linked securitizations and bank‑sector stock screens. [5]
2. Earnings momentum: Q3 2025 recap
The main fundamental driver behind WFC’s 2025 surge has been a clean regulatory reset and strong earnings growth.
Q3 2025 headline numbers
From Wells Fargo’s official Q3 2025 earnings release and supplemental filings: [6]
- Net income: about $5.6 billion for Q3 2025,
up from roughly $5.1 billion a year earlier. - Diluted EPS:$1.66, vs. $1.42 in Q3 2024.
- Total revenue: about $21.4 billion, up around 5% year‑on‑year.
- Provision for credit losses: approximately $681 million, down from over $1.0 billion in the prior year’s quarter, reflecting better credit performance.
A Reuters breakdown notes that Wells Fargo beat Wall Street profit expectations and used the occasion to raise its medium‑term return on tangible common equity (ROTCE) target to 17–18%, from 15%, after the Federal Reserve lifted the bank’s asset cap earlier in the year. [7]
Investment banking was a bright spot: fees rose roughly 25% to around $840 million, helped by Wells Fargo’s role in marquee deals such as Union Pacific’s acquisition of Norfolk Southern and Sycamore Partners’ takeover of Walgreens Boots Alliance. [8]
Outlook from management
According to AlphaSense’s summary of the Q3 2025 earnings call, management guided that: [9]
- ROTCE: targeting 17–18% over the medium term.
- Capital: managing to a CET1 ratio of roughly 10–10.5%.
- Net interest income (NII): full‑year 2025 NII to be roughly in line with 2024, with Q4 NII expected to rise sequentially to about $12.4–$12.5 billion.
- Expenses: full‑year noninterest expense expected around $54.6 billion.
In plain English: Wells Fargo is telling investors it can grow earnings and capital returns without over‑stretching its balance sheet, even as rates start to normalize and deposit competition remains fierce.
3. Capital returns: higher dividends and a $40 billion buyback
Dividend trajectory in 2025
Wells Fargo’s board has leaned heavily into capital return this year:
- April 29, 2025: the board approved a $0.40 quarterly dividend (payable June 1, 2025) and simultaneously authorized a new common stock repurchase program of up to $40 billion, to begin after the prior program is completed. [10]
- July 29, 2025: the dividend was raised by 12.5% to $0.45 per share, payable September 1, 2025, marking a significant mid‑year hike. [11]
- October 28, 2025: the board declared another $0.45 quarterly dividend, payable December 1, 2025 to shareholders of record on November 7. [12]
At today’s roughly $85–86 share price, that $1.80 annualized dividend equates to a yield of about 2.0–2.1%—not the highest among banks, but backed by decades of uninterrupted payments. An Investing.com analysis notes that Wells Fargo has paid dividends for 55 consecutive years and currently yields a bit above 2%. [13]
The $40 billion share repurchase authorization
The April 29 press release also highlighted how much capital the bank has already returned to shareholders, revealing that average common shares outstanding have fallen by about 22% since 2019. [14]
The new $40 billion buyback authorization is enormous relative to WFC’s market cap; at roughly $270–$280 billion, it represents around 15% of the company’s current value if fully used. [15]
Practically, management emphasized that repurchases will be paced within its internal capital framework, taking into account regulatory requirements and macro conditions. But the message to shareholders is clear: Wells Fargo intends to keep shrinking share count while growing the dividend, provided regulators and earnings allow it.
4. Regulatory reset – and what’s still hanging over the stock
End of the Fed asset cap
The most important structural news for Wells Fargo in 2025 was the end of the Federal Reserve’s asset cap, originally imposed in 2018 after the fake‑accounts scandal.
On June 3, 2025, the Fed officially removed the $1.95 trillion cap on Wells Fargo’s assets, following years of governance and risk‑management remediation and an independent third‑party review. [16]
CEO Charlie Scharf called the decision a “critical turning point” and announced a $2,000 special bonus in restricted stock for most of the bank’s ~215,000 full‑time employees as recognition for their role in the turnaround. [17]
Reuters notes that by Q3 2025 Wells Fargo had resolved 13 regulatory consent orders since 2019, including seven in 2025 alone, leaving only one order from 2018 still outstanding. [18]
For WFC stock, the cap removal has had two effects:
- Fundamental: the bank can now grow its balance sheet more freely, pursue more deposits and lending, and optimize capital.
- Sentiment: much of this good news has already been priced in, as the stock’s double‑digit rally post‑announcement shows.
New $85 million securities class‑action settlement
On December 1, 2025, Claim Depot reported that Wells Fargo agreed to an $85 million securities class‑action settlement tied to allegations about its “diverse search requirement” hiring initiative. [19]
Key details:
- Class period: investors who bought Wells Fargo common stock between February 24, 2021 and June 9, 2022.
- Allegation: the company and certain executives made false or misleading statements about diversity‑related hiring practices, allegedly inflating the stock price.
- Payout mechanics: the average estimated payout is around $0.056 per allegedly damaged share before fees and expenses, with actual payments depending on individual trading histories and the total number of claims.
- Deadlines: claim and opt‑back‑in deadlines are set for April 14, 2026, with a fairness hearing scheduled for May 5, 2026. [20]
Wells Fargo denies wrongdoing but chose to settle to avoid the cost and uncertainty of further litigation. Financially, $85 million is manageable for a bank earning billions per quarter, but the case is a reminder that reputational and legal risks have not completely disappeared.
Structured finance and ratings
On December 1, 2025, Fitch released an update assigning expected ratings to Wells Fargo Commercial Mortgage Trust 2025‑5C7, a commercial mortgage‑backed securities (CMBS) transaction tied to Wells Fargo’s lending and securitization pipeline. [21]
The details are behind a login wall, but the key takeaway is that Wells Fargo continues to originate and distribute commercial real estate loans that are rated and sold into the capital markets—an area investors will watch closely given sector‑wide scrutiny of commercial property exposures.
Governance quality
Yahoo/ISS data show that as of December 1, 2025, Wells Fargo carries an ISS Governance QualityScore of 5 on a 1–10 scale (1=best), with subscores of 5 for Audit, 7 for Board, 6 for Shareholder Rights and 2 for Compensation. [22]
That profile suggests “average” governance overall, with particular room for improvement in board structure and shareholder rights, areas long scrutinized in the wake of Wells Fargo’s past scandals.
5. Strategy moves: wealth management, AI and franchise investments
Beyond pure numbers, Wells Fargo has been reshaping its franchise in 2025.
- Wealth management expansion: Barron’s recently reported that Wells Fargo recruited a high‑profile advisory team from Merrill, overseeing about $3 billion in client assets, with offices in California, Arizona and Colorado. The hires are part of a broader push to strengthen wealth and investment management by bringing in established advisors from rivals. [23]
- AI and consumer banking leadership shuffle: In an August press release referenced by Business Wire, Wells Fargo announced that Saul Van Beurden would take on a new role leading artificial intelligence for the company, while Kleber Santos would expand his responsibilities and serve as co‑CEO of Consumer Banking and Lending alongside Van Beurden. [24] This underscores management’s emphasis on AI‑driven efficiency and an integrated consumer franchise.
Together with ongoing branch modernization, digital investments and card partnerships, these moves aim to make Wells Fargo less dependent on plain‑vanilla spread banking and more competitive in higher‑margin fee businesses.
6. How Wall Street sees Wells Fargo stock now
Bank‑sector screens and sentiment
On December 1, 2025, MarketBeat highlighted Wells Fargo among five “Promising Bank Stocks to Watch Today”, alongside JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup and Huntington Bancshares. The list is driven primarily by high recent dollar trading volume and the role of these banks as leveraged plays on interest rates, credit conditions and regulation. [25]
Barchart has also compared Wells Fargo’s performance with other bank stocks, noting its large market capitalization (over $260 billion) and megabank footprint even as it competes for investor attention with peers that may have outperformed over some recent periods. [26]
Mixed but generally positive analyst views
Not everyone thinks WFC is a bargain at current levels:
- A MarketWatch piece from mid‑2025 reported that Raymond James downgraded Wells Fargo from “Strong Buy” to “Market Perform”, arguing that after a 10.5% rally following the asset‑cap removal, upside looked limited relative to certain regional banks such as U.S. Bancorp. The analyst dropped a previous $84 price target, effectively saying the stock was fully valued near those levels. [27]
- Even so, the same article noted that 18 of 27 covering analysts still maintained bullish ratings (buy or overweight) on WFC, indicating that Street sentiment remains broadly constructive, even if near‑term upside appears more modest after the run‑up. [28]
Meanwhile, the November 12 Investing.com piece highlighted a wave of price‑target increases following Q3 results and the asset‑cap removal:
- TD Cowen lifting its target to around $93.
- CFRA raising its target to about $110 and reiterating a Buy rating.
- BofA Securities boosting its target to $100, citing improved profitability and strong EPS growth. [29]
Taken together, traditional analysts seem to be saying:
- Short‑term: after a big rally, Wells Fargo may trade more sideways, with returns closer to its dividend plus modest earnings growth.
- Medium‑term: if management hits its 17–18% ROTCE target and fully executes on the buyback, there’s still room for double‑digit total returns—but much depends on the economic backdrop and credit cycle.
7. What the quant and AI models are forecasting for WFC
Alongside human analysts, several quantitative and AI‑driven models publish forecasts for Wells Fargo stock. Their views, while not investment advice, give a sense of how algorithmic tools are reading the tape.
Intellectia.ai – short‑term strong buy, cautious 2026
Intellectia’s WFC page (updated to reflect the December 1 session) notes that: [30]
- WFC closed around $85.4 on December 1, down 0.52% on the day.
- Their technical dashboard shows 3 buy signals and 2 sell signals, with moving averages firmly bullish (short‑ and long‑term SMAs all above longer‑term SMAs).
- The system labels WFC a “Strong Buy candidate” in the short term, expecting the stock to perform strongly over the next few days or weeks.
- A separate pattern‑matching model estimates that one‑month price could be around $90.06, implying roughly a 4.9% upside based on high similarity (over 92%) to past moves in Evergy (EVRG).
However, Intellectia’s 2026 monthly forecast table points to average prices mostly in the high‑$60s to low‑$70s, well below today’s mid‑$80s, with most months showing negative potential ROI from current levels. [31]
In other words, this AI model is bullish short‑term but expects a pullback over the next 12–18 months if history rhymes.
CoinCodex – modest near‑term gains, long‑term upside
CoinCodex, which applies a battery of technical indicators, currently shows: [32]
- Current price: about $85.40.
- End‑2025 forecast:$85.39 (essentially flat, ‑0.56%).
- Next 5 days: projected drift up to about $88.14 by December 6 (around 3.2% gain).
- One‑year forecast: roughly $86.07 (about 0.24% higher than today).
- 2030 range: between $111.18 and $159.39, with a central estimated value around $144, implying up to ~68% upside by 2030.
The site categorizes sentiment as “Bullish”, with 20 bullish vs. 6 bearish technical indicators and a Fear & Greed index reading of “Fear”, suggesting that the trend is positive despite pockets of investor caution. [33]
StockScan – near‑term technical “Strong Buy,” longer‑term mean reversion
StockScan’s forecast page combines technical signals with long‑horizon projections: [34]
- On the technical side, 17 indicators produce 11 Buy, 1 Sell and 5 Neutral signals, leading the model to label WFC a “Strong Buy” right now.
- Moving averages from 10‑day through 200‑day are all in “Buy” territory, reinforcing the bullish trend.
But StockScan’s fundamental price path is strikingly more conservative:
- 2026 average price estimate: about $49.9, with a range of $34.5–$65.3, implying roughly 40–50% downside from current levels if realized.
- 2027 average: about $62.7, still well below today’s price.
- 2030 average: roughly $65.7, again below current levels, though the forecast shows a wide year‑by‑year range.
The upshot: the model thinks momentum is positive now, but long‑term fair value may be lower, perhaps reflecting concerns about the durability of current margins and the interest‑rate environment. [35]
What to make of the models
These algorithmic forecasts disagree sharply:
- Some (CoinCodex, parts of Intellectia) see steady or rising prices over time, with meaningful upside by 2030.
- Others (StockScan, Intellectia’s 2026 table) warn of potential medium‑term downside from today’s elevated levels.
For investors, the conclusion isn’t to trust any single model, but to recognize that:
At near‑record highs, expectations for Wells Fargo are elevated, and models are split on whether the next big move is up or down.
8. Valuation snapshot: is WFC expensive or still reasonable?
From SlickCharts and other summary sites, WFC currently trades at roughly: [36]
- ~14x trailing earnings (P/E).
- ~12x forward earnings.
- Dividend yield: about 2.0–2.1% on trailing 12‑month payouts.
Those multiples are modest compared with many large‑cap U.S. stocks, but not particularly cheap relative to other high‑quality banks, especially after the post‑asset‑cap rally and all‑time high in November.
The big valuation question is whether Wells Fargo can sustain high‑teens ROTCE and grow EPS fast enough to justify further multiple expansion—or whether it settles into a more bond‑like, capital‑return story where total returns roughly equal dividend yield plus mid‑single‑digit EPS growth.
9. Key factors for Wells Fargo stock in 2026 and beyond
Looking ahead from December 1, 2025, here are the main variables likely to drive WFC:
- Interest‑rate path and NII
- Management expects full‑year 2025 NII to be roughly flat vs. 2024, with some growth in Q4. [37]
- If the Fed cuts rates faster than expected in 2026, net interest margins could compress, pressuring earnings.
- Credit cycle and loan quality
- Q3 provisions dropped to $681 million from over $1 billion a year earlier. [38]
- Investors will watch consumer delinquencies, commercial real estate and small‑business credit closely; any deterioration could push provisions back up.
- Regulatory and legal overhang
- Execution on buybacks and dividends
- The $40 billion authorization could significantly reduce share count, but only if earnings, capital ratios and regulators allow aggressive repurchases. [41]
- Competition and franchise investments
- Talent hires from competitors like Merrill and leadership changes around AI and consumer banking show a push to improve long‑term competitiveness. [42]
- Macroeconomic backdrop
- As MarketBeat notes, bank stocks are especially sensitive to interest rates, loan performance and credit conditions, making Wells Fargo a way to bet on—or hedge—broader economic trends. [43]
10. Bottom line: Wells Fargo stock on December 1, 2025
Putting it all together:
- Price & momentum: WFC is trading just below an all‑time high, with strong multi‑year gains already in the rear‑view mirror. [44]
- Fundamentals: Earnings are solid, Q3 2025 beat expectations, and management is targeting high‑teens ROTCE while keeping credit losses in check. [45]
- Capital return: Investors are being rewarded via a higher $0.45 dividend and a massive $40 billion buyback authorization. [46]
- Regulation & reputation: The asset cap is gone, but an open class‑action settlement and one remaining consent order show that the clean‑up chapter is not fully closed. [47]
- Valuation & forecasts: The stock trades at mid‑teens earnings multiples with a modest yield, and forecasts diverge—some AI/quant models call WFC a near‑term strong buy with long‑term upside, while others see potential medium‑term downside from today’s elevated price. [48]
For investors and traders following Wells Fargo on December 1, 2025, the story is no longer about survival or regulatory triage. It’s about a rebuilt megabank that has:
- Earned back more regulatory trust,
- Turned on the capital‑return “machine”, and
- Climbed to record valuations—
but now faces a tougher question:
From these levels, is Wells Fargo a durable compounder, or a mature bank where most of the easy money has already been made?
Answering that will require a view not just on Wells Fargo itself, but on interest rates, the credit cycle and the broader U.S. economy over the rest of the decade.
References
1. stockanalysis.com, 2. www.investing.com, 3. www.investing.com, 4. www.investing.com, 5. newsroom.wf.com, 6. www.wellsfargo.com, 7. www.reuters.com, 8. www.reuters.com, 9. www.alpha-sense.com, 10. newsroom.wf.com, 11. newsroom.wf.com, 12. newsroom.wf.com, 13. www.investing.com, 14. newsroom.wf.com, 15. newsroom.wf.com, 16. www.federalreserve.gov, 17. www.investopedia.com, 18. www.reuters.com, 19. www.claimdepot.com, 20. www.claimdepot.com, 21. www.fitchratings.com, 22. finance.yahoo.com, 23. www.barrons.com, 24. www.businesswire.com, 25. www.marketbeat.com, 26. www.barchart.com, 27. www.marketwatch.com, 28. www.marketwatch.com, 29. www.investing.com, 30. intellectia.ai, 31. intellectia.ai, 32. coincodex.com, 33. coincodex.com, 34. stockscan.io, 35. stockscan.io, 36. www.slickcharts.com, 37. www.alpha-sense.com, 38. www.wellsfargo.com, 39. www.reuters.com, 40. www.claimdepot.com, 41. newsroom.wf.com, 42. www.barrons.com, 43. www.marketbeat.com, 44. stockanalysis.com, 45. www.wellsfargo.com, 46. newsroom.wf.com, 47. www.federalreserve.gov, 48. www.slickcharts.com
