SAN FRANCISCO (AP) _ Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) on Friday reported fourth-quarter net income of $2.99 billion.

The San Francisco-based bank said it had earnings of 64 cents per share.

The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 12 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 59 cents per share.

The biggest U.S. mortgage lender posted revenue of $19.12 billion in the period. Its revenue net of interest expense was $17.93 billion, falling short of Street forecasts. Six analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $18.02 billion.

For the year, the company reported profit of $3.3 billion, or 41 cents per share. Revenue was reported as $72.34 billion.

Wells Fargo shares have increased 15% since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has increased 1%. The stock has fallen 30% in the last 12 months.

This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on WFC at https://www.zacks.com/ap/WFC

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