Oct 14 (Reuters) - Wells Fargo & Co reported a rise in third-quarter profit on Thursday as the bank released funds set aside to cover soured loans brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. The fourth-largest U.S. lender reported net income of $5.12 billion, or $1.17 per share, for the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with $3.22 billion, or 70 cents per share, a year earlier. Analysts on average had expected a profit of 99 cents per share, according to the IBES estimate from Refinitiv. (Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru and Michelle Price in WASHINGTON; Editing by Aditya Soni) Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.