This article, originally published at 9 a.m. on Friday, July 15, 2016, has been updated throughout with comments from analysts and executives. 

For Wells Fargo (WFC) - Get Report investors, simply living up to Wall Street's profit expectations wasn't enough. 

The San Francisco-based company trades at a higher premium to book value than any of its rivals among the largest U.S. banks, but its reliance on traditional banking activities left it without the boost from stock and bond trading that helped JPMorgan Chase (JPM) - Get Report   and Citigroup (C) - Get Reportbeat quarterly earnings estimates by a wide margin.

Consequently, Wells Fargo stock slumped Friday, even though earnings of $1.01 a share matched analysts' projections and revenue and loan growth were strong.

"Compared to some of its large-cap peers who have already reported results, Wells Fargo's were less inspiring versus consensus estimates, putting pressure on its premium valuation," TheStreet's Jim Cramer, who holds the stock in his Action Alerts PLUS charitable trust, said in a note to clients. "Its superior valuation commands blow-away results each time it reports."

At New York-based Citigroup, which also reported second-quarter earnings Friday, bond trading revenue climbed 14% from a year earlier to $3.47 billion, while equity trading rose 21% to $788 million. JPMorgan said that its trading in currencies and government bonds rose by as much as 35%, increasing revenue to $5.6 billion.

Wells Fargo's companywide net income fell 4% from a year earlier, the bank said, to $5.17 billion. Revenue climbed 4% to $22.2 billion, matching analyst estimates.

The results "demonstrated our ability to generate consistent performance during periods of economic, capital-markets and interest-rate uncertainty," chairman and CEO John Stumpf said in a statement. "Compared with a year ago, we had solid growth in loans, deposits and customers, which are our fundamental drivers of long-term value."

Average total loans of $950.8 billion were up 9% from the prior year, boosting net interest income to $11.7 billion. That's a $66 million gain from the three months through March, reflecting, in part, the purchase of $30.8 billion of assets from General Electric (GE) - Get Report , which is shedding most of its mammoth lending business.

The biggest jump was in commercial and industrial loans, up 14% including the GE Capital acquisitions, followed by credit card loan growth of 10%, and commercial real estate gains of 8%.

The challenge facing the bank, known for its stagecoach logo, is apparent in its net interest margin, a gauge of lending profitability that narrowed 4 basis points to 2.86%. That reflects years of low interest rates after the Federal Reserve reduced them to nearly zero to buoy the economy during the 2008 financial crisis. 

EXCLUSIVE LOOK INSIDE: Wells Fargo, Citigroup and General Electric are holdings in Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS charitable trust portfolio. Want to be alerted before he buys or sellsthe stocks? Learn more now.

The central bank's monetary policy committee raised them for the first time in December, by 25 basis points, but then trimmed its outlook for further increases amid volatility early in the year due to slowing growth in China and sliding oil prices.

After markets were roiled again by Great Britain's decision to leave the European Union, futures traders largely discounted the possibility that the Fed would raises rates at all this year. That's unwelcome news for traditional banks, which typically boost profitability by passing on higher rates more quickly to borrowers than to their depositors.

And that trend may prompt Wells Fargo to over-reach for earnings growth, which could harm its franchise, brokerage firm Keefe, Bruyette, & Woods said in a note to clients. The company also has more exposure to higher-risk energy loans than its peers, the firm noted. 

The possibility of defaults on such loans increased this year when oil prices plummeted below $30 a barrel, leaving energy companies with dwindling income to repay loans taken out when prices were more than four times as high. Though oil has rallied since January, its current price of $45 a barrel remains less than half of its 2014 peak above $107 a barrel.

Wells Fargo's net charge-offs on oil and gas loans rose 29% to $263 million in the three months through June, but total high-risk loans in the portfolio narrowed 17% and executives believe the worst of the defaults are over. The bank has extended $39.1 billion in oil and gas loans, according to a presentation, about $17.1 billion of which has already been drawn by borrowers.

Wells Fargo shares dropped 3.1% to $47.42 on Friday. The company's stock had previously fallen close to 13% this year, a steeper decline than the 8.5% slide by the KBW Bank Index.

Still, S&P Global maintains a "buy" on Wells Fargo with a 12-month price target of $57.  "We see Wells Fargo as well-positioned to grow earnings per share in a low interest-rate environment, with asset growth, fee income, and expense controls as growth levers," Erik Oja, an analyst with the firm, said in a note to clients.

Wells Fargo passed the Federal Reserve's stress test in June, a positive for the bank, but it didn't change its previous plans for a 38-cent dividend to shareholders.