Wells Fargo & Company/Mn2026-Q1
Wells Fargo took an axe to its single largest holding — the SPDR S&P 500 ETF — a move valued at -$10.99B that funded a sweeping rotation into energy stocks, emerging-market debt, and a handful of deeply oversold mega-cap names.
TL;DR: The firm halved its SPY stake, trimmed mega-cap tech holdings, and recycled the proceeds into CVX, XOM, IEMG, and high-yield bonds. Separately, it bought the dip in AAPL, META, and GOOG, though the stock-price slide meant those bets actually shrank in dollar terms.
| Ticker | Action | Value Change |
|---|---|---|
| SPY | Trim | -$10.99B |
| MSFT | Trim | -$3.91B |
| CVX | Add | +$1.32B |
| AAPL | Add | -$1.10B (price drop offset buying) |
| IEMG | Add | +$939.1M |
Wells Fargo's first-quarter portfolio action was dominated by a single, staggering trade: it cut its SPY position from $19.66B to $8.67B. This was not a subtle trim. It was a systematic exit from over half of its passive US large-cap exposure. The proceeds, combined with multi-billion-dollar trims in QQQ, MSFT, and NVDA, gave the firm a massive cash pile to redeploy across entirely different corners of the market. The portfolio's turnover ratio rose from 0.14287 to 0.177081, a clear signal of active reshuffling under the hood.
Wells Fargo added shares of AAPL and GOOG during the quarter, yet the positions' dollar value fell measurably — a literal case of buying into a declining market.
The clearest destination for that capital was energy and international equities. Chevron grew by +$1.32B and Exxon Mobil grew by +$720.4M, pushing the portfolio's Energy sector weight from 0.0376 to 0.0547. The firm also poured money into emerging markets: IEMG swelled to $6.10B and EEM picked up substantial new capital. Meanwhile, a massive new bet appeared in FMDE (Fidelity Enhanced Mid Cap ETF), which soared from $124.9M to $752.7M, and Lumentum (LITE) surged from $49.3M to $407.7M.
Wells Fargo was also a net buyer of some of the most troubled mega-cap stocks of the quarter. It added shares of AAPL, META, GOOG, and LLY. Yet because the stock prices of these companies fell more than the value of the new shares purchased, the total dollar value of each position actually declined. The filing explicitly notes that AAPL saw "shares added (real buying), but the dollar value fell because the stock price dropped more than the added shares were worth — NOT a sell." This distinction separates a tactical dip-buy from a failed bet: Wells Fargo committed real capital to these names despite the drawdown.
The opposite dynamic played out in a handful of winners. Wells Fargo actively sold shares of PSX, STX, JNJ, ADI, and NEE — but these stocks rallied so sharply that their overall dollar value within the portfolio rose. As the filing states, these trims were "NOT a buy" but simple profit-taking on price strength. A confidential holding (listed without a ticker) displayed this phenomenon most dramatically, surging in total market value despite an active reduction in share count. The firm was harvesting gains from its winners just as surely as it was doubling down on its laggards, while also growing its total holding count from 6694 to 6742.
Wells Fargo's 13F is the portrait of a giant in motion, rotating capital out of passive index monoliths and into a granular mix of value, energy, and international bets. In a quarter defined by violent rotation, the firm chose to meet the market's turbulence with action, not patience.