Wells Fargo’s Stumpf Wins CEO of the Year Award



Morningstar named John Stumpf of Wells Fargo the recipient of its 2015 CEO of the Year award.

Stumpf, a 34-year veteran of Wells Fargo, has continued a tradition of consistent strategy and management, helping the company prosper since taking over in 2007. Since then, Wells Fargo’s stock has gained more than 70% in value, outperforming the S&P Financials Index by 100% and most of its large U.S. peers. Book value per share has roughly tripled over the same period.

In addition, in 2015, the company achieved returns on equity well in excess of Morningstar’s estimate of the cost of equity and returned approximately 58% of profits to shareholders.

Shareholders have benefited from the firm’s conservative balance sheet management and bold mergers and acquisitions. Recent capital-allocation decisions, including the acquisition of large loan portfolios from GE Capital, have continued to demonstrate the company’s disciplined approach to growth.

The two other nominees for Morningstar’s 2015 CEO of the Year award were Jeff Bezos of Amazon and Jeffrey Immelt of General Electric.

“Our three nominees each lead companies our analysts consider to have a ‘Wide’ Economic Moat, or structural competitive advantages that position them to earn above-average returns on capital over a long period of time,” said Michael Holt, global head of equity research for Morningstar. “With technological advances, an increasingly global marketplace, and the relentless nature of competition, the stewardship of a moat is not a simple task. We believe assessing the quality of management is a critical step in analyzing any company.

“We named John Stumpf our 2015 CEO of the Year because we think he deserves credit for much of the success Wells Fargo has enjoyed in recent years. He guided the bank through a difficult period in the industry and shunned activities that put profits ahead of customers, building up strength while many of its peers languished. We view Wells Fargo’s dominant market position as its largest structural advantage, and its exceptionally high profitability gives us confidence in the bank’s potential to generate excess returns for some time.”

Morningstar is a leading provider of independent investment research in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia.


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