Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo's (NYSE: WFC) recently reported fourth-quarter results were rather poor for this historically high-quality bank. But it's all relative: Many competitors are faring much worse.

Net income for the fourth quarter was off 38 percent, despite revenue growth of 8 percent. The decline was partly due to a $1.4 billion loss reserve tied to home equity loans. For the full fiscal year, Wells grew revenue 10 percent over year-ago levels, but saw its bottom line fall 4 percent. In a vote of confidence, the bank received a "high-quality" credit rating of Aa1, with the rating agency noting that the bank has enough capital to absorb current losses as well as anticipated future losses.

Though it's not expected that Wells Fargo will suddenly face the harrowing losses that others have dealt with, it's reasonable to expect that 2008 will not be particularly kind. The U.S. consumer continues to feel squeezed, likely contributing to continued losses in multiple lines of the bank's business. Meanwhile, net interest margins have been falling across the industry, draining additional profit.

The stock is down more than 30 percent since this time last year. Still, while good times may not be quickly approaching, it's also not likely that we'll see stocks of Wells Fargo's quality down this much very often.