Wells Fargo Q1 08

-- Wells Fargo & Co., the biggest bankon the U.S. West Coast, said first-quarter profit fell less thananalysts estimated as the company limited losses from the declinein California home prices. The bank rose 7.4 percent in earlytrading. --Net income dropped 11 percent to $2 billion, or 60 cents ashare, from $2.24 billion, or 66 cents, a year earlier, the SanFrancisco-based company said today in a statement. --Earningsincluded a $334 million gain from Visa Inc.'s initial publicoffering. Analysts were estimating Wells Fargo would earn 57cents a share, according to a survey compiled by Bloomberg. Wells Fargo was profitable even as competitors such asWachovia Corp. and Washington Mutual Inc. posted losses becauseof the slumping West Coast housing market. The company is thenation's second-largest home lender behind Countrywide FinancialCorp., which is selling itself to Bank of America Corp. afterbeing crippled by bad home loans. ``This bank has the most conservative credit culture of anymajor bank and the strongest sales culture,'' said Robert Millen,a fund manager at Portland, Oregon-based Jensen InvestmentManagement Inc., which held 3.3 million Wells Fargo shares as ofDec. 31. ``They've not gotten too much into these exoticinstruments that are causing problems at so many other bigbanks.'' First-quarter revenue at Wells Fargo increased 12 percent to$10.6 billion. Net charge-offs, the cost of bad loans that won't be fully repaid, jumped to $1.53 billion from $1.21 billion inthe fourth quarter. Charge-offs for consumer loans, which includecredit cards and automobile financing, rose 26 percent to $1.21billion. --Provision 2 bil --Net charge-offs 1.5 bil --allowance 5 bil vs 4 bil Q1 07