Wells Fargo stock hit a record high Wednesday as the bank sector overall surges. With interest rates starting to fall, bank lending is likely to accelerate and, potentially, sales and profits too. Reporting season kicked off this week with several banks reporting outstanding results.
Morgan Stanley and Bank of America stocks also jumped Wednesday on strong earnings, as reported in Stock Market Today. The Relative Strength (RS) Rating for Wells Fargo jumped from 66 on Tuesday to 78 on Wednesday, closing fast on the 80 or better score that The IBD Methodology investors prefer to see.
Wells Fargo In Top 6% For Profit Growth
Wells Fargo's other key ratings are outstanding. It boasts a terrific 94 EPS Rating out of 99. And it carries a 90 Composite Rating, a mix of five other IBD ratings. The best growth stocks have a 90 or higher Composite.
Additionally, its Accumulation/Distribution Rating of B- indicates that institutional investors like university funds and ETFs are buying more of its shares than selling.
Can You Really Time The Stock Market?
Research on over 100 years of market history shows that stocks that go on to make the biggest gains typically have an 80 or better RS Rating in the early stages of their moves. See if Wells Fargo can continue to show renewed price strength and clear that threshold.
Wells Fargo stock broke out of a cup-with-handle base on Sept. 18 with an 83.20 buy point. It's continued climbing and hit an all-time high at 87.47 Wednesday morning. Wednesday afternoon the San Francisco-based bank had eased to above 86, up for the day. See if WFC stock goes on to form a chart pattern that could spark a new run.
Earnings, Revenue Growth Accelerating
Wells Fargo has posted rising profit growth over the last two quarters. Sales growth also increased during the same period. In its latest quarter it reported a better-than-expected 22% hike in earnings to $1.73 per share on a 5% rise in revenue to $21.4 billion.
Wells Fargo earns the No. 6 rank among its peers in the 22-stock Banks-Money Centers industry group, according to IBD Research. NatWest Group ranks No. 1 in the group. Barclays and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya are also among the top 5 highly rated stocks in the group.
IBD's unique RS Rating measures market leadership by using a 1 (worst) to 99 (best) score that shows how a stock's price performance over the trailing 52 weeks compares to other publicly traded companies.
This article was created automatically with Stats Perform's Wordsmith software using data and article templates supplied by Investor's Business Daily. An IBD journalist may have edited the article.
Please follow James DeTar on Twitter @JimDeTar
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