Well Fargo's shares decline 6.7%.

Wells Fargo's Shares Decline 6.7%

Shares of Wells Fargo & Co. tumbled in value Monday by as much as 6.7%.

The stock was off $5.875 a share, to $82, in afternoon trading.

Analysts said investors viewed the stock as a banking industry proxy as the stock market sold off on worries about seconnd-quarter profits and the economy's direction.

Salomon Brothers analyst Thomas H. Hanley said he expected Wells' second-quarter profits to be slightly below the first quarter's $2.86 per share and "with a greater-than-usual degree of uncertainty on the credit-quality front."

The company highly-leveraged-transaction portfolio is a special area of uncertainty, he said, since "results of the current shared national credit examinations are not expected before the third quarter."

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
MORE FROM AMERICAN BANKER