Hedge fund manager: Stick with BofA
Posted on November 19, 2009 at 10:03 am
John Paulson, the hedge fund guru who has hit several home runs during the current recession, has told his clients that Bank of America could double in the coming year and change.
The firm follows about 70 banks internationally and said the 139 percent gain in those stocks since the market’s March low “has resulted in inefficient valuations creating what we believe are opportunities” to benefit from rising and falling share prices.
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Local insurer’s chairman floated as BofA boss candidate
Posted on November 4, 2009 at 9:55 am
Finger Interests, an investment firm critical of Bank of America’s search for a successor to Ken Lewis, has compiled a draft list of executives it says the company should consider to make its process more than “cosmetic.” Among them is Gerald Ford, the chairman and former CEO of Nashville-based auto insurer First Acceptance.
Ford ran Golden State Bancorp before selling it to Citigroup seven years ago for $5.8 billion and building First Acceptance soon after. He also chairs the board of trustees of Southern Methodist University.
Finger says Ford is a “proven entrepreneur” with the chops to handle a turnaround situation, but admits he is a long shot for the BofA job and says First Acceptance’s recent performance — a nine-month loss of $68.3 million on sales of $265 million — isn’t a positive, either.
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A little buying power?
Posted on October 28, 2009 at 7:48 amNational Healthcare Corp. (Ticker: NHC) has renewed its $75 million line of credit with Bank of America for another year. The Murfreesboro-based operator of long-term care and senior-living facilities said the available money will help it take advantage of growth opportunities in the senior care market.
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BofA’s Lewis to get nothing in ‘09
Posted on October 16, 2009 at 8:27 am
Outgoing Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis will cut a $1 million check to the company to repay his year-to-date compensation. Pay czar Kenneth Feinberg “suggested” Lewis not be paid anything this year after regulatory questions surfaced about his bank’s purchase of Merrill Lynch.
Loading ...BofA boss stepping down
Posted on September 30, 2009 at 7:02 pm
Ken Lewis, who has led Bank of America since 2001 and continued the acquisition strategy of his predecessor Hugh McColl, will retire at the end the year after a stint at the top that became very politicized after last year’s shotgun marriage with Merrill Lynch. CNBC’s Charlie Gasparino says he was not asked to step down.
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BofA looks to wriggle free of the government
Posted on September 22, 2009 at 8:02 am
Bank of America said Monday it has exited several government assistance programs and will pay back $425 million it received as a backstop against Merrill Lynch losses.
“We are a stronger company than we were even a few months ago,” Mr. Lewis, the chief executive, said in a statement. “We believe we have all the pieces in place to emerge from this current economic crisis as one of the leading financial services firms in the world.”
Next up: a partial TARP payback, some legal dancing and plenty of political posturing related to the Merrill acquisition. BofA shares (Ticker: BAC) have almost tripled since March, but have barely budged since early August.
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Signal Hill hires Baltimore analyst
Posted on August 4, 2009 at 9:16 amMaryland-based investment house Signal Hill, which is in the process of opening its first local beachhead, has hired high-end Bank of America analyst T.C. Robillard Jr. Previously based out of BofA’s New York office, Robillard covers private corrections and business services.
Prior to joining Signal Hill, Mr. Robillard was the Head of the Business Services research team for Bank of America Securities, with responsibility for all sub-sectors, including Corrections, Facility Management, Staffing, CRM/BPO, Consulting/Advisory and Information Services. Before joining BOA, he was a senior research analyst with Chilton Investment Company, where he was responsible for generating investment ideas and providing industry analysis across the Wireless Equipment, IT Services, and Outsourcing & Transaction Processing sectors.
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BofA could lose Lebanon
Posted on July 30, 2009 at 9:14 amAfter a software glitch rejected more than 200 Lebanon city employees’ paychecks, Mayor Philip Craighead tells Channel 4 he’s looking for a local bank to replace Bank of America.
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Report: BofA to cut branch network
Posted on July 28, 2009 at 7:12 am
The Wall Street Journal reports that Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis last week told some investors he’s thinking about trimming his branch count by 10 percent. In Nashville, that would mean the nation’s biggest bank (Ticker: BAC) would close down four offices.
SEE ALSO: The L.A. Times‘ follow-up with demographic commentary.
“The fact is that an increasing number of consumers, especially younger ones, and businesses rarely go to branches anyway. By maintaining and growing its mobile and online offerings, BofA should be able to retain such consumers as customers,” said Red Gillen, senior analyst with Celent, a Boston-based financial research and consulting firm.
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Analyst action: Psych Solutions, BofA
Posted on July 24, 2009 at 1:26 pmRBC Capital Markets has begun covering Psychiatric Solutions with an ‘outperform’ rating and a $30 price target. Psych Solutions shares (Ticker: PSYS) have almost doubled from their spring lows.
Meanwhile, analysts at Standpoint Research have launched coverage of Bank of America (Ticker: BAC) with a ‘hold’ rating and a target of $18.
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Lender pushes Rolling Mill Hill project into receivership
Posted on June 11, 2009 at 4:27 pmBank of America has sued over an outstanding construction loan of almost $11 million and wants to foreclose on the three-building project being developed conjunction with MDHA.
The development ran into problems because Direct was undercapitalized, without enough money to pay for expenses even after work was completed, says Walker Mathews, president of R.C. Mathews, general contractor for the project. He says the condos have great features, and construction was finished by April 14, as promised two years earlier.
“The unfortunate thing is we got all the way to the finish line, and it turns into a mess,” Mathews says.
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Dissecting the stress tests
Posted on May 7, 2009 at 10:14 pm
First, all the banks’ results neatly in a row. Among the banks with a notable presence in Nashville, only U.S. Bank and BB&T were deemed not to need new capital. BofA, Wells Fargo, Regions, SunTrust and Fifth Third must raise a combined $53 billion.
Then, from the AP comes a rundown of just how some of the affected players plan to raise the billions they need as well as word from those planning to repay TARP ASAP.
And via the Journal, a measured look at how the once-maligned concept of stress tests – Wells chief Dick Kovacevich not long ago called them ‘asinine’ – may actually come to be seen as the positive tipping point when we collectively caught our breath.
Investors fretted for weeks that the Treasury wanted to nationalize parts of the banking system, despite repeated efforts by Mr. Geithner and others to dispel that idea.
In retrospect, the tests were akin to hitting the pause button. The period allowed Mr. Geithner to buy time for the government’s evolving approach to the banking crisis, which had previously been ad hoc and heavily criticized.
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Six becomes 10 in stress tests
Posted on May 5, 2009 at 10:55 pmSo says the Journal:
It’s possible Wall Street is being overly optimistic about the impact of the results and the resulting dash by banks to bolster capital. One big risk worrying industry officials is that the market will view banks on the list as insolvent when the official results are announced Thursday, even though Fed officials have repeatedly said that’s not the case.
SEE ALSO: BofA may need 34 really big ones and Are Regions and SunTrust part of The Stress Test Six?
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BofA, Citi scramble for Capital Plan B
Posted on May 3, 2009 at 10:59 pmSources have told the FT that early indications from the Fed’s stress tests are that both banking behemoths will need at least $10 billion in new capital.
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Ciao Countrywide
Posted on April 27, 2009 at 11:48 am
Bank of America is spiking one of the brands that we’ll look back and associate primarily with the housing boom.
Lewis expressed disappointment at consumer surveys conducted by Bank of America showing a rapid disappearance of the goodwill attached to the Countrywide name.
“Even when we bought them, they tested well,” Lewis said in a recent interview. “But the negative press, just time and time again, took it down. So they went from first to last” in the surveys.
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