10 Best Bank Stocks with High Dividends

4. Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 73

Dividend Yield as of August 4: 3.13%

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) is a California-based financial services company providing a wide range of services, including loans, mortgages, investing, and credit cards. The bank has made significant progress since the 2016 scandal that rocked the banking industry. Back then, the bank was fined $185 million by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) after it was revealed that employees had fraudulently opened over two million credit card and checking accounts without customer approval. The bank continued to face misconduct allegations in 2017 and 2018, leading to increased scrutiny from various regulatory bodies.

According to analysts, as the most consumer-oriented bank—and the only one without a substantial investment banking division—Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) may be particularly well-positioned to benefit as interest rates begin to stabilize. In the second quarter of 2024, the company reported revenue of $20.7 billion, which grew slightly by 1% from the same period last year. The company’s net income came in at $4.9 billion.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) is one of the best dividend stocks from the banking sector as the company has been paying regular dividends to shareholders since 1988. On July 23, the company hiked its quarterly dividend by 14.3% to $0.40 per share. In the most recent quarter, it distributed $1.2 billion to shareholders through dividends. The stock has a dividend yield of 3.13%, as of August 4.

At the end of March 2024, 73 hedge funds owned stakes in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC), up from 72 in the previous quarter, as per Insider Monkey’s database. These stakes have a collective value of more than $4.4 billion. With nearly 23 million shares, Harris Associates was the company’s leading stakeholder in Q1.