I’m a new hire (for how much longer? Who knows). I went to enroll in the stock purchase plan and found out that the shares are just bought on the open market at no discount... Can’t I just do that myself? Sounds more like a benefit for Wells Fargo than anything.
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Knowing what you do from working at Wells, why would you think that purchasing WF stock is a good move? There are a thousand great companies to invest in. Wells is only going up if they trim 40% of us and get promptly bought out.
Yes, every company that offers stock purchase plan gives 10-15% discount. I am here for over 6yrs and wfc had 0 discount. My friends in other companies can do 25% of their salary and get instantly 15% when issued by selling them right away.
I used it as an extra savings account over the years and sold it when I needed it for car expenses.
Aside from being a bogus replacement for a managed pension plan, the stock plan is supposed to incentivize you to work harder to make the stock price go up.
And there's the real reason, you working for your handful of shares to rise in price helps the execs with their millions of shares all the richer.
That aside, I've done well with options at tech companies, not so much here at Wells.
I guess the main purpose is to avoid insider trading issues.
This is a case of an employee benefit where there is no benefit for the employee. Unless there is a sizable discount you should never buy employer stock this way. Use an online brokerage like Schwab that offers free trades with far superior customer service. I had to call EQ Shareholder services for customer service another day and I almost cried. Service is horrendous.
As an employee, your financial future is already heavily invested in WF. Why would you voluntarily invest even more in the same company? You already have plenty of skin in the game. Diversify. Never invest in your employer.
Back years ago, WFC use to offer the stock at a 10% discount to the market price. A lot of people took advantage of buying the stock and then selling it to make 10% on their purchases. That went away when mgt decided they needed that money to pay for other benefits. You are better off buying the stock in the open market as you can use stop losses to minimize your downside risk. Can’t do that with the ESPP
The "discount" is no broker fee, so depending on who you would use outside of Wells there could be no discount or a couple of dollars. I was also surprised when I first started here.
Jesus. Schwab offers employees 15% discount on ESPPs. You’re getting screwed.
Why in the name of anything holy would you want to buy WF stock even at a discount. Is this the type of person the bank is now hiring?
There is no financial benefit to the stock purchase plan, and do remember - you will receive your 401k match in company stock.
The benefits are automatic dollar cost averaging, and convenience, but be sure to ask yourself if WF is a stock you would consider buying if you didn’t work here, because you will be paying full price.