WesBanco (WSBC)

Regional banking company WesBanco (NASDAQ:WSBC) met Wall Street’s revenue expectations in Q3 CY2025, with sales up 73.5% year on year to $261.6 million. Its GAAP profit of $0.84 per share was 3.6% below analysts’ consensus estimates.

Company Overview

Tracing its roots back to 1870 in West Virginia, WesBanco (NASDAQ:WSBC) is a bank holding company that provides retail and commercial banking, trust services, insurance, and investment products through its subsidiaries across several Midwestern and Mid-Atlantic states.

Regional banks, financial institutions operating within specific geographic areas, serve as intermediaries between local depositors and borrowers. They benefit from rising interest rates that improve net interest margins (the difference between loan yields and deposit costs), digital transformation reducing operational expenses, and local economic growth driving loan demand. However, these banks face headwinds from fintech competition, deposit outflows to higher-yielding alternatives, credit deterioration (increasing loan defaults) during economic slowdowns, and regulatory compliance costs. Recent concerns about regional bank stability following high-profile failures and significant commercial real estate exposure present additional challenges.

WesBanco competes with other regional banks operating in the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest regions such as F.N.B. Corporation (NYSE:FNB), Northwest Bancshares (NASDAQ:NWBI), and S&T Bancorp (NASDAQ:STBA), as well as larger national banks like JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM), Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), and PNC Financial Services (NYSE:PNC) that have branches in WesBanco's markets.

Two primary revenue streams drive bank earnings. While net interest income, which is earned by charging higher rates on loans than paid on deposits, forms the foundation, fee-based services across banking, credit, wealth management, and trading operations provide additional income. Luckily, WesBanco’s revenue grew at a solid 8.2% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years. Its growth beat the average banking company and shows its offerings resonate with customers.

We at StockStory place the most emphasis on long-term growth, but within financials, a half-decade historical view may miss recent interest rate changes, market returns, and industry trends. WesBanco’s annualized revenue growth of 19.8% over the last two years is above its five-year trend, suggesting its demand was strong and recently accelerated. Note: Quarters not shown were determined to be outliers, impacted by outsized investment gains/losses that are not indicative of the recurring fundamentals of the business.

This quarter, WesBanco’s year-on-year revenue growth of 73.5% was magnificent, and its $261.6 million of revenue was in line with Wall Street’s estimates.

Net interest income made up 79.6% of the company’s total revenue during the last five years, meaning lending operations are WesBanco’s largest source of revenue.

Our experience and research show the market cares primarily about a bank’s net interest income growth as non-interest income is considered a lower-quality and non-recurring revenue source.

We track the long-term change in earnings per share (EPS) for the same reason as long-term revenue growth. Compared to revenue, however, EPS highlights whether a company’s growth is profitable.

WesBanco’s EPS grew at an unimpressive 3.8% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years, lower than its 8.2% annualized revenue growth. This tells us the company became less profitable on a per-share basis as it expanded.

Like with revenue, we analyze EPS over a more recent period because it can provide insight into an emerging theme or development for the business.

For WesBanco, its two-year annual EPS declines of 16.3% show it’s continued to underperform. These results were bad no matter how you slice the data.

In Q3, WesBanco reported EPS of $0.84, up from $0.54 in the same quarter last year. Despite growing year on year, this print missed analysts’ estimates. Over the next 12 months, Wall Street expects WesBanco’s full-year EPS of $1.96 to grow 91%.

The balance sheet drives banking profitability since earnings flow from the spread between borrowing and lending rates. As such, valuations for these companies concentrate on capital strength and sustainable equity accumulation potential.

This explains why tangible book value per share (TBVPS) stands as the premier banking metric. TBVPS strips away questionable intangible assets, revealing concrete per-share net worth that investors can trust. Other (and more commonly known) per-share metrics like EPS can sometimes be murky due to M&A or accounting rules allowing for loan losses to be spread out.

WesBanco’s TBVPS was flat over the last five years. However, TBVPS growth has accelerated recently, growing by 4% annually over the last two years from $19.69 to $21.29 per share.

Over the next 12 months, Consensus estimates call for WesBanco’s TBVPS to grow by 10.5% to $23.52, solid growth rate.

Leverage is core to a financial firm’s business model (loans funded by deposits). To ensure economic stability and avoid a repeat of the 2008 GFC, regulators require certain levels of capital and liquidity, focusing on the Tier 1 capital ratio.

Tier 1 capital is the highest-quality capital that a firm holds, consisting primarily of common stock and retained earnings, but also physical gold. It serves as the primary cushion against losses and is the first line of defense in times of financial distress.

This capital is divided by risk-weighted assets to derive the Tier 1 capital ratio. Risk-weighted means that cash and US treasury securities are assigned little risk while unsecured consumer loans and equity investments get much higher risk weights, for example.

New regulation after the 2008 financial crisis requires that all firms must maintain a Tier 1 capital ratio greater than 4.5%. On top of this, there are additional buffers based on scale, risk profile, and other regulatory classifications, so that at the end of the day, firms generally must maintain a 7-10% ratio at minimum.

Over the last two years, WesBanco has averaged a Tier 1 capital ratio of 10.8%, which is considered safe and well capitalized in the event that macro or market conditions suddenly deteriorate.

Return on equity, or ROE, quantifies bank profitability relative to shareholder equity - an essential capital source for these institutions. Over extended periods, superior ROE performance drives faster shareholder wealth compounding through reinvestment, share repurchases, and dividend growth.

Over the last five years, WesBanco has averaged an ROE of 6.8%, uninspiring for a company operating in a sector where the average shakes out around 7.5%.

It was encouraging to see WesBanco beat analysts’ tangible book value per share expectations this quarter. On the other hand, its EPS missed and its net interest income fell slightly short of Wall Street’s estimates. Overall, this was a weaker quarter. The stock still traded up 1.4% to $31.80 immediately after reporting.

Updated: December 4, 2025 at 11:41 PM EST

Before investing in or passing on WesBanco, we urge you to understand the company’s business quality (or lack thereof), valuation, and the latest quarterly results - in that order.

WesBanco’s business quality ultimately falls short of our standards. To begin with, its revenue growth was mediocre over the last five years. And while its estimated net interest income growth for the next 12 months is great, the downside is its TBVPS growth was weak over the last five years. On top of that, its relatively low ROE suggests management has struggled to find compelling investment opportunities.

WesBanco’s P/B ratio based on the next 12 months is 0.8x. While this valuation is reasonable, we don’t really see a big opportunity at the moment. We're pretty confident there are superior stocks to buy right now.

Wall Street analysts have a consensus one-year price target of $37 on the company (compared to the current share price of $33.32).