Just a few days after it got the green flag to merge with Wachovia Corp., Wells Fargo & Co. reported a 25 percent decline in net income, yet still managed to beat expectations.

The company said its decline in earnings was a result of write-downs of its investments in Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Lehman Bros. Holdings Inc., as well as higher credit losses, CNNMoney reported.

Reported net income was $1.64 billion, or 49 cents per share, which was down from a profit of $2.17 billion, or 64 cents per share, in the same period a year ago.

Wells Fargo also reported higher revenues during this year’s third quarter than the same period a year ago -$10.38 billion this year compared with $9.85 billion last year.

Shares of Wells Fargo were up more than 1 percent as of 10:20 a.m. Iowa time, and the stock is up about 14 percent year-to-date.