5 Best Bear Market Stocks To Invest In

3. Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 93

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) ranks next on our list of the best bear market stocks to buy now. Shares of the financial services company were found in the portfolios of 93 hedge funds at the close of the first quarter, as compared to 94 hedge funds a quarter earlier. With a position worth nearly $885 million, Theleme Partners was the largest shareholder of Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) at the end of the first quarter of 2022.

On April 14, Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) announced its Q1 results, and disclosed earnings per share of $0.88, beating estimates by $0.07. The company’s revenue for the quarter fell $232.4 million below forecasts, coming in at $17.59 billion.

Citi analyst Keith Horowitz on April 18 maintained a ‘Buy’ rating on Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) shares, with a price target of $56. Horowitz sees the recent share price weakness presenting a good buying opportunity, and thinks that the company’s balance sheet remains very well positioned for higher interest rates.

Investment firm Davis Funds mentioned Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) in its Q4 2021 investor letter. The fund said:

“The absolute level of revenues and profits generated by such companies is in fact so large that most of the major financial holdings in the portfolio produce enough annual operating income individually that a number of them could, in theory, purchase several entire businesses among hundreds of choices within the S&P 1500 Index, using just a year’s cash earnings without dipping into capital. This is theoretical, as financial companies would not be in the business of buying healthcare or technology companies, for example, but we point out these facts to illustrate the sheer scale of the economics produced by single financial companies in a given year, which is often a multiple of the cash earnings yielded by companies in a host of other industries.

Given this cash-generation power, we are naturally drawn to what we believe are strong and profitable financial institutions when the price is right. Presently, we believe the valuations of our financial holdings are not only reasonable, but extremely compelling, and our portfolio composition reflects this view. Representative financial holdings in the Fund include Wells Fargo.”