Wells Fargo & Company (WFC): 1 Bank Stock I’m Ready to Buy Right Now

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Their team may have lost the Superbowl, but 49ers fans can at least console themselves with the fact that the City by the Bay has a winning bank: Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC).

The San Francisco-based banking giant is not only as healthy as the proverbial horse right now, but it’s also supremely well positioned for growth in the industry that Ben Bernanke is counting on to bring the country back from the economic dead: housing. As such, Wells Fargo is a bank stock I’m ready to buy, and here are three reasons why.

Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC)1. Brilliant fourth-quarter earnings
For the quarter, Wells Fargo made a record $5.1 billion in net income, for year-over-year growth of 24%, and corresponding record earnings per share of $0.91. For the year, the bank made $18.9 billion in net income, for year-over-year growth 19%, and corresponding record earnings per share of $3.36.

In comparison, investor darling Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) only managed to make $0.7 billion in net income in the fourth quarter, down from $2 billion the year previous, leaving investors with earnings per share of just $0.03. Meanwhile, fellow superbank Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) showed year-over-year growth as good as Wells Fargo — 25.1% —  giving investors earnings per share of $0.38. That’s a job well done for Citi, but its $2.2 billion in adjusted net income still doesn’t hold a candle to Wells’ bottom line.

B of A investors can primarily thank a $2.7 billion payout to Fannie Mae for claims over soured mortgages leftover from the financial crisis for the bank’s terrible fourth-quarter numbers, a blemish that segues us nicely into reason No. 2 for investing in Wells Fargo.

2. A record of good behavior
None of the big American banks came out of the financial crisis with entirely clean hands, but some did much better than others: Wells Fargo is one of those banks.

In July of last year, the bank agreed to pay $175 million to settle charges from the Department of Justice that brokers originating loans for Wells Fargo charged higher fees and higher interest rates for black and Latino borrowers than it did for white borrowers. And in October, federal prosecutors accused the bank of misrepresenting the quality of loans it originated to the Federal Housing Administration , or FHA, whose job it is to guarantee home loans for lower income and first-time buyers.

Like I said, Wells Fargo isn’t perfect, but up against B of A, which just agreed to pay more than $10 billion to Fannie Mae (of which $2.7 billion has already been paid, as referenced above) for troubled mortgages originated during the housing boom (one of several crisis-related payouts over the last year), Wells Fargo is a saint.

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