5 Stocks to Buy and Hold for Decades According to Warren Buffett

3. Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 94

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) is a multinational financial services company headquartered in San Francisco, California. The stock has been a part of Buffett’s portfolio since Q4 2010, although the legendary investor has drastically trimmed his stake in the firm owing to reservations about the company’s management practices. Berkshire Hathaway still owns 675,054 shares of Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC), worth $32.3 million. 

On January 25, Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) declared a $0.25 per share quarterly dividend, a 25% increase from its prior dividend of $0.20. The dividend was paid on March 1, to shareholders of record on February 4. 

Deutsche Bank analyst Matt O’Connor placed a “Catalyst Call: Buy” on shares of Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) as a short-term investment pick on February 15. The upside for Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) will be evidence suggesting that the bank’s asset base will increase, which will be announced within the next month, the analyst told investors in a bullish thesis. 

A total of 94 hedge funds held long positions in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC), up from 88 funds in the earlier quarter. Eagle Capital Management held the biggest stake in the company, with over 20 million shares valued at $961.4 million. 

Here is what L1 Capital Long Short Fund Limited has to say about Wells Fargo & Company in its Q4 2021 investor letter:

“Detailed, bottom-up stock research remains the investment team’s primary focus and the core driver of portfolio performance. 2021 once again demonstrated the team’s ability to identify ‘winners’ through extensive company and industry research across a diverse range of sectors. Key contributors included Wells Fargo, (due to its) improving compliance and operational performance, falling bad debts and progress towards removal of ‘asset cap’. Exited our holding in June at a >50% gain.”