Wells Fargo Announces 11% Dividend Increase

SAN FRANCISCO, July 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) today announced a quarterly common stock dividend of 31 cents per share, up nearly 11 percent from the previous dividend of 28 cents per share. The dividend is payable Sept. 1, 2007, to stockholders of record on Aug. 10, 2007. The Company has approximately 3.4 billion shares outstanding.

Chief Financial Officer Howard Atkins said this is the 20th consecutive year Wells Fargo has increased its dividend and its 25th dividend increase since 1987. Wells Fargo is among ten percent of the more than 10,000 North American-listed, dividend-paying, common stocks classified as a "Dividend Achiever" -- a publicly traded company that has increased its dividends the last ten or more consecutive years.*

"Since 1988, Wells Fargo dividends have increased at a 15 percent compound annual growth rate," said Atkins, "with the Company's annual dividend payout now exceeding $3.8 billion, the 15th largest annual dividend of any public company in any industry in the U.S."

The past 20 years, Wells Fargo achieved the fifth highest total stockholder return (up more than 4,200 percent) among all S&P 500(R) companies that were part of the S&P 500 20 years ago and still are part of the S&P 500 today. With dividends reinvested, Wells Fargo stock has increased 222 percent in value since June 1997 -- a compound annual growth rate of 12.4 percent -- compared to 8.8 percent for the Keefe Bruyette Woods bank index and 7.1 percent for the S&P 500 stock index.

Wells Fargo dividend history: https://www.wellsfargo.com/invest_relations/dividend.

Wells Fargo & Company is a diversified financial services company with $540 billion in assets, providing banking, insurance, investments, mortgage and consumer finance through almost 6,000 stores and the internet (http://wellsfargo.com/) across North America and internationally. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. is the only bank in the U.S., and one of only two banks worldwide, to have the highest credit rating from both Moody's Investors Service, "Aaa," and Standard & Poor's Ratings Services, "AAA."

* Source: Mergent, Inc.