Wells Fargo: Mortgages Helped Drive Record EPS

Wells Fargo & Co., San Francisco, has reported that mortgage banking and other consumer lending drove a 10% increase in its earnings per share in the second quarter, which reached a record level.Wells Fargo reported net income of $1.525 billion in the second quarter, or $0.90 per share. The company said it funded $135 billion in home loans during the second quarter, up $32 billion from its first-quarter volume. "The impact of the lowest interest rates in 40 years and the flood of home financing activity were best reflected in the record $204 billion of applications taken by Home Mortgage during the second quarter," said Mark Oman, group executive vice president of Home and Consumer Finance. The company serviced $582 billion of home loans at the end of the second quarter, an increase of $96 billion from that of a year earlier. The portfolio has a weighted average note rate of 6.21%.