Here's How Much Investing $1,000 In Wells Fargo Stock 5 Years Ago Would Be Worth Today

Investors who owned stocks since 2016 generally experienced some big gains. In fact, the SPDR S&P 500 SPY total return in the past five years is 118.9%. But there’s no question some big-name stocks didn’t keep pace along the way.

Wells Fargo’s Struggle: One market laggard of the past five years was Wells Fargo & Co WFC.

Wells Fargo and other U.S. banks were hit hard during the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009. Wells Fargo notoriously navigated the 2008 crisis relatively well compared to other banks, even stepping in to help stabilize the financial system by buying the assets of Wachovia for $14.8 billion in 2008.

Unfortunately for Wells Fargo investors, the company has been plagued with a series of scandals since the 2008 crisis, including a 2016 scandal involving employees creating fraudulent accounts on behalf of customers.

Wells Fargo started 2016 trading at around $53 and spent most of the year in a range between around $45 and $50 before breaking out to the upside late in the year. The stock ultimately peaked at $66.31 in 2018 before is stalled thanks in large part to a Federal Reserve cap on the bank’s assets as part of the regulatory fallout from the accounting scandal.

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2020 Pandemic Sell-Off: Wells Fargo dipped as low as $22 during the 2020 COVID-19 sell-off and hasn’t gained back much ground since. The stock has since regained much of those losses and is back above $34 as investors are optimistic about a resumption of bank buybacks and an economic recovery in 2021.

Despite the broad market rally, Wells Fargo investors are now worse off today than they were five years ago. In fact, $1,000 worth of Wells Fargo stock bought in 2016 would be worth about $784 today, assuming reinvested dividends.

See Also: How To Buy Wells Fargo Stock.

Looking ahead, analysts expect minimal additional upside for Wells Fargo in 2021. The average price target among the 23 analysts covering the stock is $35, suggesting 2.2% upside from current levels.