Capital One Financial vs Wells Fargo & Company/mn (COF vs WFC)
Side by side from their SEC filings: revenue, margins, growth, returns and valuation, plus short interest, insider activity and institutional ownership.
Wells Fargo & Company/mn is the larger company by revenue ($83.7B vs $53.4B) and market value ($263.2B vs $129.7B). Capital One Financial has grown revenue faster over the last 4 fiscal years (+75.6% cumulative vs +5.7%). Capital One Financial trades at the lower trailing P/E (11.8x vs 12.6x).
About Capital One Financial
Capital One Financial Corporation is a diversified financial services company that operates as a global payments provider and financial institution. It offers a range of products including credit cards, debit cards, bank lending, treasury management, auto loans, and other consumer lending services primarily in the United States. The company serves consumers, small businesses, and commercial clients through digital channels, branch locations, cafés, call centers, and ATMs.
About Wells Fargo & Company/mn
Wells Fargo & Company is a financial holding company and bank holding company based in Delaware. It provides a wide range of banking, investment, mortgage, and finance products and services to individuals, businesses, and institutions primarily in the United States and internationally. Its offerings include consumer banking, commercial banking, corporate and investment banking, and wealth and investment management.
Head to head (COF FY2025 vs WFC FY2025)
| Metric | COFFY2025 | WFCFY2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $53.43B | $83.70B |
| Revenue growth (YoY) | 36.6% | 1.7% |
| Gross margin | — | — |
| Operating margin | — | — |
| Net margin | 4.6% | 25.5% |
| Net income | $2.45B | $21.34B |
| Diluted EPS | $4.03 | $6.26 |
| FCF margin | 48.9% | — |
| ROE | 2.2% | 11.7% |
| Long-term debt / equity | 0.44× | 0.95× |
| Market cap | $129.65B | $263.21B |
| P/E | 11.8× | 12.6× |
Fundamentals are from each company’s SEC filings (COF FY2025, WFC FY2025). ROE is net income over fiscal-year-end equity; long-term debt / equity counts non-current term debt only. P/E and market cap are derived from stored market prices, last retrieved on a rolling basis and typically within the past week.
Five-year trend (as reported)
| Revenue | FY2021 | FY2022 | FY2023 | FY2024 | FY2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| COF | $30.43B | $34.25B | $36.79B | $39.11B | $53.43B |
| WFC | $79.17B | $74.37B | $82.60B | $82.30B | $83.70B |
Peer standing
Where each company ranks among the 76 banks, on the same scale. Each figure is ranked only against peers that report it. Percentiles describe position in the distribution, not a rating.
| Metric | COF | WFC |
|---|---|---|
| Net margin | 4.6%Lowest of 76 | 25.5%37th percentile of 76 |
| Revenue growth (YoY) | +36.6%84th percentile of 76 | +1.7%7th percentile of 76 |
| ROE | 2.2%Lowest of 76 | 11.7%75th percentile of 76 |
| P/E | 11.8×38th percentile of 75 | 12.6×62nd percentile of 75 |
| Long-term debt / equity | 0.44×62nd percentile of 38 | 0.95×92nd percentile of 38 |
| Short interest (days to cover) | 3.71d23rd percentile of 75 | 2.43d5th percentile of 75 |
Short interest
| FINRA settlement data | COF | WFC |
|---|---|---|
| Shares sold short | 10.7M | 28.1M |
| Change vs prior settlement | +0.1% | -1.3% |
| Days to cover | 3.71 | 2.43 |
| As of settlement | 2026-08-14 | 2026-08-14 |
Source: FINRA Consolidated Short Interest. FINRA is the owner and source of the FINRA-supplied data; republishing or redistributing it is not permitted. Not presented as a percentage of float. No FINRA endorsement of this product is implied.
Insider activity (last 90 days)
| Form 4 activity (codes P/S) | COF | WFC |
|---|---|---|
| Buys | 0 | — |
| Sells | 15 ($7.1M) | — |
Non-derivative purchases (code P) and sales (code S) reported on SEC Form 4, which may be open-market or private (grants, exercises and tax withholding excluded). For context, about 15% of covered companies saw any reported insider purchase (code P) in a 90-day window.
Held by the same investors
12 tracked 13F managers hold both Capital One Financial and Wells Fargo & Company/mn as of their latest quarterly filings: AQR Capital Management, Bridgewater Associates, Citadel Advisors, D. E. Shaw, Dodge & Cox, Gotham Asset Management, Harris Associates (Oakmark), Markel Group, Millennium Management, Point72 Asset Management, Renaissance Technologies, Two Sigma Investments. See which superinvestors hold your own portfolio with the smart money checker.
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Data sourced from SEC EDGAR. Figures are as-reported and may be unaudited or restated; verify against the source filings before relying on them. Comparisons are descriptive (higher or lower on a reported figure), not a rating or a recommendation. Informational only. Not investment advice.