BofA (BAC) is Worst Performing Financial Stock in 2011

December 30, 2011 8:03 AM EST Send to a Friend
"Plaudite, amici, comedia finita est." - L. van Beethoven. (translation: Applaud, my friends, the comedy is over.)

Not for Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), it isn't. But at least not much more damage can be done for 2011.

BofA will hold the title of being the worst Dow Jones performer for the year. And there's not even close competition: the was about 15 percent lower than the next-worst performer Alcoa (NYSE: AA). As a Bloomberg article points out, BofA will also likely end the year at the bottom of the S&P 500 Financials Index and the KBW Bank Index (NYSE: KBE).

After starting the year at $13.28, shares have dropped 59 percent to $5.44. Adding salt to the wound, BofA's low of the year at $4.92 came just days ago on December 19th.

The drop this year erased about $80 billion in market value.

For comparison, the Dow rose 6.1 percent in 2011, the S&P Financials fell 18 percent, and the KBW Bank Index dropped 24 percent.

Is it really fair to point out BofA's troubles? After all, not every financial had an illustrious year. JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) slipped 20 percent, American Int'l Group (NYSE: AIG) is down 52 percent, Citi (NYSE: C) is off 43 percent, and Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) fell 46 percent.

With its $8.5 billion mortgage-bond settlement still being scrutinized, Fannie Mae pressuring for the repurchase of defective loans, tighter capital requirements coming up, and a slew of other issues (Countrywide, anyone?), the comedy -- or tragedy -- might just be beginning.

And that's a three-ring circus investors are likely to pass on.

Shares of BofA are down nearly 0.4 percent at last check Friday morning.


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Comments

BofA
barney on Dec 30, 2011 08:43 PM
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Ken Lewis, who was the ceo of bac is a super smart man. Jamie Dimon ceo of JPM is also a super smart man. I believe, that in 2008 when the financial system was crumbling, that the gov't told, made, bac take over Country Wide. The damage that was done to bac is the result of Country Wide. If BAC had access to the books of Cpountry Wide, they would have stayed far away from the company. The liberal media is blaming everything on the banks. They should pay more attention to Barney Frank and Dowd. Just the other day, I heard on the radio, that Jamie Dimon said, that the Frank Dowd bill is ANTI-AMERICAN. Bank of America, is the victim of Fannie and Freddie. I would bet dollars to donuts that they didn't want to take over Country Wide.
Can you imagine an economic system without banks? If you can imagine that, then you can imagine what life would be like if we didn't have the grids,. which supply our electricity.


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