Wells Fargo & Co., the largest U.S. home lender, reported a 13 percent rise in first-quarter profits, setting a record as the bank made more money on new mortgages and curbed losses from old ones, Bloomberg reported.

Net income rose to $4.25 billion, or 75 cents a share, from $3.76 billion, or 67 cents per share, a year earlier, the San Francisco- based company said in a statement today. That beat the 73-cent estimate of 31 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Results included a $400 million release from reserves. Revenue climbed 6.4 percent to $21.6 billion, more than the $20.4 billion forecast by analysts.

CEO John Stumpf is taking advantage of weakness among rivals at home and abroad by expanding U.S. mortgage lending and buying assets from European banks. Thirteen straight quarters of profits helped Wells Fargo to become the most valuable U.S. bank by market capitalization and allowed Stumpf to raise the dividend 83 percent and buy back shares.

“They are a dominant player in mortgages, and that allows them to maintain good margins,” said Jennifer Thompson, an analyst at Portales Partners LLC in New York, before the results were announced. “More market share tends to be good for the players that have it since they have more oligopoly-type pricing power than they would otherwise.”