Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE:WFC) released its first quarter results before the opening of the U.S. markets on April 12, 2013. The Q1 net income of Wells Fargo was $5.2 billion, an increase of 22% from the previous year quarter. The diluted EPS also rose 23% to $0.92. However, the revenues were marginally lower at $21.3 billion, compared to $21.6 billion in the same period last year. Still, Wells Fargo announced a common dividend of $0.25 a share to its shareholders in the first quarter, anticipating that the dividend can be increased to $0.30 a share in the second quarter. The company also plans repurchase of common stock at the same levels in 2013 comparable to 2012 levels, starting with the repurchase of around 17 million shares in the first quarter. In spite of the positive results, the stock declined 0.80% by 30 cents to $37.21 on April 12, 2013. However, this marginal decline is an indication that the investors have discounted the minor decline in revenues and have a positive outlook on Wells Fargo.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock has been gaining steadily in the week starting with April 8, 2013 and ending with April 12, 2013. Even though the stock declined for 3 days in this week, the stock gained 1.56% during the week by climbing $6.60 to $429.80. The gains by the Apple stock is mainly due to anticipated above average performance of the company, when it releases its earnings after market close on April 23. Analyst Kulbinder Garcha of Credit Suisse strongly believes that the company would maintain its growth momentum across all key product lines mainly driven by continuous innovations in software, hardware and services of the company. Even though the sentiments of major analysts about the forthcoming earnings of Apple tend towards pessimism, they also expect the company to announce an increase in dividend to compensate its lower financial results. Investors and analysts trust that the substantial war chest of $137 billion that Apple possesses might help it in the near future to improve its prospects in the market.
