Wells Fargo & Co. said today that its profits rose slightly in the fourth quarter as it continued to lend more money and decrease the amount it set aside to cover soured loans, The New York Times reported. Profits rose 2 percent, to $5.71 billion, from $5.61 billion in the period a year earlier, while revenues increased 4 percent, to $21.4 billion. The earnings translated into $1.02 a share, matching the expectations of analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters. Wells Fargo said in a release that loans rose 4 percent to $849.4 billion from the year-ago quarter, while deposits increased 8 percent to $1.1 trillion.