Wells Fargo Shares rose on Wednesday after the bank reported better-than-expected earnings and issued strong guidance for 2025 net interest income.

The bank’s fourth-quarter report compared with Wall Street expectations, according to a survey of analysts by London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG):

• Adjusted earnings per share: $1.58 vs expected $1.35
• income: US$20.38 billion, expected US$20.59 billion

Net income rose 47% to $5.1 billion, or $1.43 a share, from $3.45 billion, or 86 cents a share, a year ago. Excluding a severance charge of 15 cents per share, Wells Fargo earned $1.58 per share, beating the consensus estimate reported by LSEG.

The San Francisco-based bank said it expects net interest income, a key measure of bank loan income, to be 1% to 3% higher in 2025 than in 2024 at $47.7 billion.

Wells Fargo shares rose more than 5% on Wednesday.

“Our solid performance this quarter marks a significant year of progress for Wells Fargo,” Chief Executive Officer Charlie Scharf said in a statement. “Our bottom line continues to improve, and we see our We maintain a strong balance sheet, we have returned approximately $25 billion of capital to shareholders, and we have strong performance in risk and control Significant progress has been made in the work.”

Wells Fargo’s fourth-quarter investment banking expenses increased 59% from the same period last year to $725 million.

The bank repurchased 57.8 million shares of common stock, or $4 billion, in the fourth quarter of 2024.

The bank’s shares have soared nearly 43% in 2024 and are up 6% so far in January.

Revised: Wells Fargo adjusted earnings per share of $1.58. An earlier version of this story excluded other items from the quarterly results, but analysts adjusted only for severance, according to LSE.