Wells Fargo earnings rise

Wells Fargo posted solid fourth-quarter results Wednesday, including revenue that beat Wall Street's expectations.

The San Francisco bank posted profits of $5.71 billion for the three months ended in December, up 2% from last year and above profit of $5.61 billion from last year. On a per-share basis, that comes to $1.02 a share — in line with analysts' expectations and 2% above the $1 per share of profits posted this time last year.

The bank posted revenue of $21.4 billion, above Wall Street's prediction for revenue of $21.23 billion. That's a 4% increase over revenue of $20.67 billion for the fourth-quarter last year.

Wells Fargo was largely saved from the market tumult that is expected to hit trading revenue for its peers in the last three months of 2014, including JP Morgan. The San Francisco banks focuses more on lending and deposits than trading.

"As the U.S. economy continues to build momentum, I'm optimistic that our diversified business model will continue to benefit all of our stakeholders in 2015," said Chairman and CEO John Stumpf.

"Our performance in the fourth quarter was a great example of the benefit of our diversified business model and reflected a continuation of the solid results we generated all year," said Chief Financial Officer John Shrewsberry. "Compared with the prior quarter, we increased deposits and grew commercial and consumer loans while maintaining our risk and pricing discipline."

Still, shares dropped 1.6% in early trading along with declines in premarket trading for JP Morgan, which posted disappointing fourth-quarter results, including a revenue decline of 3% to $22.5 billion.

For the full year, Wells Fargo posted net income of $23.1 billion, up 5% from 2013, and earning per share of $4.10 a share, also up 5% from last year.