Wells Fargo 1st-quarter earnings top analysts' expectations

Wells Fargo & Co., corporate parent of Wells Fargo Bank Iowa, posted a first-quarter net profit that beat analysts' forecasts, but it's revenue slipped below expectations.

The San Francisco-based financial services giant recorded net income available to shareholders of $4.93 billion, or 92 cents per share, for the quarter that ended March 31, up from  $4.02 billion, or 75 cents per share, in the first quarter of 2012. Analysts were forecasting earnings of 88 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters.

The nation's largest mortgage lender posted first-quarter revenue of $21.3 billion, down slightly from $21.59 billion in the same quarter of last year.

Wells Fargo, the fourth-largest U.S. bank by assets, has experienced a decline in home loans for two consecutive quarters as fewer borrowers refinance at low interest rates. The bank made $109 billion in mortgages during the most recent quarter, down from $129 billion in the first quarter of 2012 and less than the $125 billion in loans recorded in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Fees from mortgages slipped 2 percent to $2.8 billion from a year earlier, and were down 9 percent from the fourth quarter of 2012. Wells Fargo said applications for home loans pending closing totaled $74 billion at the end of March, down from $81 billion on Dec. 31, 2012.

Wells Fargo's net interest margin, an indicator of how much money banks make from their loans, slid to 3.48 percent in the first quarter from 3.91 percent in the same quarter last year. Banks have seen their net interest margin erode as older loans with higher interest rates are paid off.