While more acquisitions may be the last thing on Wells Fargo & Co.'s (NYSE:WFC) agenda as it's still in the midst of integrating the game-changing late 2008 acquisition of Wachovia Corp., executives at the fourth-largest bank are apparently thinking along those lines.

That thinking is likely to remain of the wishful variety.

When questioned about potential purchases at the Goldman Sachs Financial Services Conference on Tuesday, Wells chairman, CEO and president John Stumpf said the bank is "suboptimized" in the wealth, management, brokerage and retirement businesses, adding, "if there were the right opportunity at the right time, that could be interesting to us."

While the San Francisco bank may have room to expand its wealth management, brokerage and retirement operations, with these businesses only accounting for about 14% of its total $20.8 billion in revenue in the third quarter ended Sept. 30, few, if any, targets exist in this space that might satisfy Wells Fargo's appetite for distressed deals.

"Who are they really going to buy and who's out there?" asked Raymond James & Associates Inc. analyst Anthony Polini. He said the only possible scenario might be for Wells to acquire "bits of [wealth management] business" sold off by banks.

However, banks that have wealth management businesses might be reluctant to unload those bits now because "those wealth management assets at this point in the cycle are good assets to have," he added.

Wealth management assets tend to bring the high quality and stable deposits from high-net-worth individuals that banks prize.

Furthermore, the wealth management sector does not fit into Wells Fargo's strategy of acquiring distressed institutions on the cheap as it did in the roughly $15 billion all-stock Wachovia deal.

The wealth management arena, which is not currently in distress, is "not the environment Wells Fargo would want to step into," said Rochdale Securities LLC analyst Richard Bove.

Regarding acquisitions of "bits of business," Bove said that is easier said than done as the acquisition of wealth management assets tends to also involve taking on the brokers of those assets due to the relationship-based nature of the business.

Wells Fargo's best bet to expand its wealth management business might be through more traditional commercial banking growth. "By sticking to their knitting" and picking up regional banks and adding branches, Wells can add new high-net-worth banking customers and potentially cross-sell its wealth management services, Polini said.

So while Stumpf may be shopping, he's likely to encounter bare shelves and few bargains.