Wells Fargo & Company (WFC) Competitors

U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) and Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, community ranking, valuation, profitability, dividends, media sentiment, risk and earnings.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in USB or WFC?

Wells Fargo & Company received 824 more outperform votes than U.S. Bancorp when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 61.52% of users gave Wells Fargo & Company an outperform vote while only 57.71% of users gave U.S. Bancorp an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
U.S. Bancorp	Outperform Votes 786 57.71%	Underperform Votes 576 42.29%
Wells Fargo & Company	Outperform Votes 1610 61.52%	Underperform Votes 1007 38.48%

Do insiders and institutionals believe in USB or WFC?

77.6% of U.S. Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 75.9% of Wells Fargo & Company shares are held by institutional investors. 0.2% of U.S. Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Wells Fargo & Company shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Do analysts recommend USB or WFC?

U.S. Bancorp presently has a consensus target price of $53.48, suggesting a potential upside of 21.81%. Wells Fargo & Company has a consensus target price of $74.18, suggesting a potential upside of 0.02%. Given U.S. Bancorp's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe U.S. Bancorp is more favorable than Wells Fargo & Company.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
U.S. Bancorp	0 Sell rating(s)	9 Hold rating(s)	12 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.57
Wells Fargo & Company	0 Sell rating(s)	9 Hold rating(s)	11 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.55

Which has higher earnings & valuation, USB or WFC?

Wells Fargo & Company has higher revenue and earnings than U.S. Bancorp. U.S. Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Wells Fargo & Company, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
U.S. Bancorp	$27.34B	2.50	$6.30B	$3.79	11.58
Wells Fargo & Company	$82.30B	2.96	$19.72B	$5.38	13.79

Is USB or WFC a better dividend stock?

U.S. Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.6%. Wells Fargo & Company pays an annual dividend of $1.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. U.S. Bancorp pays out 52.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Wells Fargo & Company pays out 29.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. U.S. Bancorp has increased its dividend for 14 consecutive years. U.S. Bancorp is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Is USB or WFC more profitable?

Wells Fargo & Company has a net margin of 15.73% compared to U.S. Bancorp's net margin of 14.75%. U.S. Bancorp's return on equity of 12.94% beat Wells Fargo & Company's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
U.S. Bancorp	14.75%	12.94%	0.97%
Wells Fargo & Company	15.73%	12.38%	1.04%

Which has more volatility & risk, USB or WFC?

U.S. Bancorp has a beta of 1.02, suggesting that its share price is 2% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Wells Fargo & Company has a beta of 1.16, suggesting that its share price is 16% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media favor USB or WFC?

In the previous week, Wells Fargo & Company had 30 more articles in the media than U.S. Bancorp. MarketBeat recorded 64 mentions for Wells Fargo & Company and 34 mentions for U.S. Bancorp. Wells Fargo & Company's average media sentiment score of 1.43 beat U.S. Bancorp's score of 1.07 indicating that Wells Fargo & Company is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
U.S. Bancorp	24 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	4 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Wells Fargo & Company	51 Very Positive mention(s)	6 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Wells Fargo & Company beats U.S. Bancorp on 13 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.