Bank of America (BAC)

[kennynah]

give these people too much time to idle...they end up buying shares during office hours...

Bank of America CEO buys shares - Update
1/21/2009 11:29 PM ET

(RTTNews) - Wednesday, according to a regulatory filing Bank of America Corp (BAC: News ) chief executive Kenneth Lewis acquired 200 thousands common shares on Tuesday, thereby increasing his stake in the beleaguered bank to 1,460,997 common shares worth $7.45 million based on the closing price.

Acquisition of shares by insiders is generally a favorable happening and suggests confidence in the prospects of the company.

According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Lewis acquired the shares between $5.98 and $6.06. Bank of America closed Tuesday's regular trading session at $5.10.

Other directors who purchased shares include Ward Jackie, who bought 16,800 shares at about $5.95, Sloan Jr Temple who acquired 50 thousand shares between $5.83 and $5.99. In addition, Tillman Robert purchased 200 thousands between $5.77 and $5.78, Collins John acquired 31,600 shares at $5.81 and $5.99 and Barnet William III acquired 30 thousands shares at $5.75.
The purchases by Lewis and other directors bode well for the investors in the troubled bank which last week reported $1.79 billion in loss for the fourth-quarter compared to net income of $268 million a year earlier.

The company, which made two key acquisition decisions in 2008, noted that quarterly results were driven by escalating credit costs, including additions to reserves, and significant write-downs and trading losses in the capital markets businesses.

The Charlotte, North Carolina-based also took a $20 billion capital injection from the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program and backstop another $118 billion of assets, to facilitate the company to cope with the losses associated with the acquisition Merrill Lynch & Co.

BAC rose $1.58 or 30.98% and closed Wednesday's regular trading session at $6.68. In extended trading BAC rose further $0.12 or 1.80% and traded at $6.80.

[kennynah]

i confirm...if BAC price ever comes back down to ~$4.20.....i will load it up...synthetically, that is...

[Chiron]

Looking at the price action since the start of this year, seems like nationalization is imminent to BAC and C. Even the chairman of US banking association, though saying its not on the card, cannot 100% guaranteed that it will not happen when grilled by the CNBC hosts.



Have cleared out my holdings at a loss some time back.

[iam802]

Some points to note for Bank of America.

- loans portfolio is now worth less than what is stated in its book by US$44B
- market cap is about US$25.2B (from Google Finance)

-------
UPDATE 2-BofA carries loans $44 bln above market value

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsN ... 228?rpc=44

NEW YORK, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) is carrying loans on its balance sheet marked at more than $44 billion above their fair value, the company said in its annual report filed with U.S. regulators on Friday.

The bank said it ended 2008 with $886.2 billion in loans, but estimated the fair value -- or market price -- for these loans as $841.6 billion.

The bank intends to hold these loans to maturity, not for sale, said spokesman Scott Silvestri, explaining why the loans are marked above market value.

The report showed the bank struggled throughout the year as losses on consumer debt including mortgages, home equity and credit cards piled up.

Falling home prices prompted the bank to modify more than 230,000 mortgages in 2008 to help homeowners stay in their homes -- but the value of these mortgages has continued to fall.

Along with losses from mortgages and other consumer loans, the bank said it holds $6.45 billion in impaired commercial loans, up from $2.14 billion at the end of 2007, according to the report.

Separately, Bank of America's investment bank lost more than $10 million on one in every four trading days in 2008.

The Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank has reported write-downs and credit losses of more than $60 billion since the credit crisis began in the middle of 2007.

Bank of America shares finished down more than 25 percent on Friday at $3.95, amid a broad rout of financial stocks after the announcement the government is converting its position in Citigroup Inc's (C.N) preferred stock to common shares to help restore investor confidence in that bank's capital position. Shares in Bank of America have fallen 72 percent since the start of the year. (Reporting by Elinor Comlay; Editing by Gary Hill)

[kennynah]

ok...IIRC, when their loan portfolio value drops, this will affect their "margin requirement" they need to mandatorily maintain with Fed Reserve Bank...somewhat like tier 1 capital ratio requirement

so, unless they can cover this shortfall thru operations, they will need to borrow or inject funds.... thru bonds, preferred shares issuance, private equities placements, etc...

so they say, they intend to hold onto such loans ... provided, i suppose housing prices do not deteriorate much further.... it makes sense that they modify their mortgage repayment plans to avoid defaults.. and during this period, companies with plenty of money will survive since it is a waiting game...

i've stated before that i like their aggressive plans in expanding thru inorganic growth during this downswing... now, i just need to know they can tahan the bleed... if they can, i sure will buy them... but BAC price will require more dollar value investing, when compared to C or AIG...so, i do have other options to look at...

[LenaHuat]

BofA anticipates uglier numbers:

Bank of America Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis said on Tuesday that the U.S. economy will get worse before it improves, and forecast record losses for the U.S. credit card industry.

"We, as an industry, may end up with possibly the highest credit card losses the industry has ever experienced," Lewis said.

Lewis said that in light of the ongoing financial crisis he saw a good chance of another half a percentage point rate cut at the next Federal Reserve meeting scheduled for Dec. 15-16.

Speaking to reporters, Lewis also said the largest U.S. bank will have 'fairly significant' job eliminations resulting from its takeover of Merrill Lynch [MER 11.40 -0.38 (-3.23%) ] in September.

Whitney, who predicted that Citi would hve to cut dividends during the early days of the fin crisis, has a similar take on credit card. Read this :-
http://www.cnbc.com/id/29619401

[helios]

Just loaded small positions ... might carry-over for end this week or next.

[helios]

bingo. exited.

[helios]

the catapult was released too early @ 7.2; should have tahan a day, a while more ... ...

[LenaHuat]

Hi SanSanMeiMei
Ok lah, bird$$ in the bag oredi Good job