WFC · Financials(national commercial banks) · 10 years of annual accounts filed with the SEC · latest fiscal year ended 2025-12-31
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Of the $104.4 billion its operations generated over 10 years, 130.2% went to buybacks and 55.2% to dividends; the share count fell 36.5%. On the accounting screens, it passes 3 of 6 Piotroski tests; 1 of the six cross-checks between its statements fires.
Revenue, fiscal 2025—
Operating margin—gross margin —
Return on invested capital16.5%11.1% on average over 5 years
Free cash flow—
Net debt ÷ EBITDA0.3×net debt 20.4B
Piotroski F-score3/6tests of improvement passed
Is it growing?
Revenue and the operating income it turns into. Growth that does not reach operating income is growth bought with margin.
RevenueOperating income
025B50B75B100B
2016Revenue 88.3BOperating income 38.0B
2017Revenue 88.4BOperating income 36.7B
2018Revenue 86.4BOperating income 43.2B
2019Revenue 85.1BOperating income 44.8B
2020Operating income 10.5B
2021Operating income 33.5B
2022Operating income 24.7B
2023Operating income 54.4B
2024Operating income 71.0B
2025Operating income 72.7B
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Compound growth a year
3 yrs
5 yrs
9 yrs
Operating income
+43.3%
+47.3%
+7.5%
Net income
+16.0%
+44.6%
-0.3%
Earnings per share
+22.7%
+51.8%
+4.9%
Dividend per share
+15.5%
+7.4%
+1.5%
Shares
-5.5%
-4.7%
-4.9%
Falling shares are buybacks: each remaining share owns more of the company.
Does it earn more than its capital costs?
Margins say how much of each sale is kept; return on invested capital says how much the business earns on the money it needs to operate. Growth only creates value when that return is above the cost of the capital.
GrossOperatingNetFree cash flow
0%20%40%60%
2016Operating 43.1%Net 24.9%
2017Operating 41.6%Net 25.1%
2018Operating 50.0%Net 25.9%
2019Operating 52.7%Net 23.2%
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Return on invested capital
Return on invested capital
0%5%10%15%20%
2016Return on invested capital 4.7%
2017Return on invested capital 5.6%
2018Return on invested capital 6.5%
2019Return on invested capital 6.7%
2020Return on invested capital 1.2%
2021Return on invested capital 7.0%
2022Return on invested capital 5.2%
2023Return on invested capital 9.9%
2024Return on invested capital 17.1%
2025Return on invested capital 16.5%
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Economic profit
Needs a cost of capital, which comes from the valuation below.
Return on equity
11.8%
Return on assets
1.0%
Asset turnover
—
Is the profit cash, and where does the cash go?
Net income is an accounting opinion; free cash flow is what was left in the bank after investing. Stock-based pay does not leave the bank — shareholders pay it through dilution — so it is shown taken off as well.
Net incomeFree cash flowAfter stock-based pay
010B20B30B
2016Net income 21.9B
2017Net income 22.2B
2018Net income 22.4B
2019Net income 19.7B
2020Net income 3.4B
2021Net income 22.1B
2022Net income 13.7B
2023Net income 19.1B
2024Net income 19.7B
2025Net income 21.3B
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Where 10 years of operating cash went, 2016–2025
104.4B generated by the business. Each band is its share of that total.
Reinvested in the business 0%0
Acquisitions 30%30.9B
Dividends 55%57.6B
Share buybacks 130%135.9B
More than it generated: funded with cash or new debt -115%-120.1B
Over the same years it paid 10.4B in stock. The share count fell 36.5%. 125.6B of the buybacks went beyond offsetting that dilution.
Per share
Earnings per shareFree cash flow per shareDividend per share
$0$2$4$6$8
2016Earnings per share $4.29Dividend per share $1.46
2017Earnings per share $4.42Dividend per share $1.49
2018Earnings per share $4.63Dividend per share $1.59
2019Earnings per share $4.45Dividend per share $1.85
2020Earnings per share $0.82Dividend per share $1.17
2021Earnings per share $5.40Dividend per share $0.59
2022Earnings per share $3.56Dividend per share $1.09
2023Earnings per share $5.15Dividend per share $1.29
2024Earnings per share $5.69Dividend per share $1.48
2025Earnings per share $6.58Dividend per share $1.68
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Shares outstanding
Diluted shares
3.0B3.5B4.0B4.5B5.0B5.5B
2016Diluted shares 5.1B
2017Diluted shares 5.0B
2018Diluted shares 4.8B
2019Diluted shares 4.4B
2020Diluted shares 4.1B
2021Diluted shares 4.1B
2022Diluted shares 3.8B
2023Diluted shares 3.7B
2024Diluted shares 3.5B
2025Diluted shares 3.2B
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Debt and liquidity
Debt is not bad in itself; debt the business cannot service in a bad year is. Net debt is debt minus cash, and below zero the company holds more cash than it owes.
Net debt
-100B0100B200B
2016Net debt 130.5B
2017Net debt 112.3B
2018Net debt 161.5B
2019Net debt 191.5B
2020Net debt 7.3B
2021Net debt -39.1B
2022Net debt 66.9B
2023Net debt 61.1B
2024Net debt -26.1B
2025Net debt 20.4B
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Net debt ÷ EBITDA
0.3×
Interest coverage
2× operating income ÷ interest
Current ratio
— current assets ÷ current liabilities
Cash conversion cycle
—
Three classic screens of the accounts
Each asks a different question of the same statements — is it improving, does it look like a company heading for distress, do the accounts resemble ones that were manipulated. None is a verdict; each shows what moves it.
Piotroski F-score
Is the business improving? Nine yes-or-no tests, this year against last.
3of 6 tests passed
✓ProfitableReturn on assets above zeropassed
✕Cash from operationsOperating cash flow above zerofailed
✕Profitability improvedReturn on assets higher than a year beforefailed
✕Profit backed by cashOperating cash flow above net income (low accruals)failed
✓Less long-term debtLong-term debt as a share of assets fellpassed
–More liquidCurrent ratio higher than a year before — not reportedno data
✓No new sharesShare count did not growpassed
–Better gross marginGross margin higher than a year before — not reportedno data
–Sells more per assetAsset turnover higher than a year before — not reportedno data
Where it misleads: it measures change, not level. An excellent business that stood still for a year scores low; a poor one recovering from a disaster scores high.
Altman Z''-score
Does the balance sheet look like those of companies that went bankrupt?
The accounts lack a line it needs (retained earnings, current assets or liabilities).
Beneish M-score
Do the accounts resemble those of companies that manipulated their earnings?
The accounts lack too many of the lines it needs.
Where the statements disagree
Cross-checks between the income statement, the balance sheet and the cash flow for the latest year, each with the benign reading and the worrying one.
Reported profit comfortably exceeds the cash generated (21,338M against -19,001M).
Benign
Growth consuming working capital, or the seasonality of the year-end.
Worrying
Profit held up by accounting entries that do not turn into money.
What is it worth, under which assumptions?
A company is worth the cash it will generate, brought back to today. This model projects revenue with growth that fades over the years, applies a free cash flow margin, and discounts the result at the cost of capital. Every assumption says where it came from, and all of them can be changed.
The SEC accounts lack the lines needed for revenue, free cash flow or the share count, so there is no DCF for this company.
What it has filed lately
The last twelve months at the SEC, most important first: annual and quarterly reports, events, large holders and insiders.
Every Form 4 filed in the last twelve months, read line by line: 6 filings by 7 people. Open-market purchases and sales are counted apart from awards, option exercises and shares withheld for taxes.
Bought on the open market—none in the period
Sold on the open market—none in the period
Under pre-arranged plans—of the sales followed a 10b5-1 plan set months earlier
A Form 4 says what happened, when, how many shares and at what price. It does not say why: a sale can be diversification, a tax bill or a plan fixed months earlier, and an award is pay, not a purchase. Nothing here is a reason to buy or sell anything.
Which large funds report holding it
From the Form 13F of the 28 institutions followed on this site, as of the end of their last reported quarter. A 13F is filed up to 45 days later and shows only long positions in US-listed shares.
Accounts from the company's own SEC filings; lines some companies do not report are shown as a dash rather than estimated. The risk-free rate is the 10-year US Treasury yield. A DCF is a way of making assumptions explicit, not a forecast: it states what the company would be worth if the assumptions held. The scores are screens that point where to look, not verdicts. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell.
