7 Best Fortune 500 Dividend Stocks to Invest In Now

4. Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 76

Dividend Yield as of December 31: 2.01%

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) operates as a diversified, community-based financial services company, offering banking, insurance, investment, mortgage, and related services.

On December 18, Truist raised its price target on Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) to $100 from $90 and kept a Buy rating on the stock. The update followed recent conference appearances by management, which led the firm to refresh its model. Truist also lifted its FY27 EPS estimate to $8.15 from $7.85, pointing to continued progress on the bank’s efficiency ratio, the analyst said in a research note.

Earlier in the month, a December 9 report from Reuters said Wells Fargo expects additional workforce reductions and higher severance costs in the fourth quarter. CEO Charlie Scharf said artificial intelligence is set to reshape how the bank operates.

Scharf described AI as extremely important, both for the efficiencies it can unlock and for ‘what it is going to potentially do to headcount’. He said AI would not fully replace people, but it will change how work gets done across the organization. He added that the anticipated decline in headcount reflects Wells Fargo’s broader push to operate more efficiently, echoing comments he made in an interview last month.

The bank plans to introduce AI tools gradually over the next year and beyond, positioning the shift as part of a longer-term efficiency effort. Scharf called the transition a ‘positive reality’ for Wells Fargo, while acknowledging that AI adoption is likely to result in some workforce reductions alongside meaningful opportunities in technology.