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The Company conducts its principal lending, deposit gathering, transaction processing and service advisory activities through its banking and non-banking subsidiaries.
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timattox (97.26) Submitted: 5/28/08 3:13 PM : Start Price: $18.46 FITB Score: 6.90
This is a quandary... will they be able to maintain their 9+% dividend, or will they cut it? The market says they will cut the dividend... the one star CAPS rating says "stay away". The stock is at an 11 YEAR low, none of this 52-week low pansy stuff of other stock picking techniques. ;-)I picked this last month on 4/16/08, and managed to take a quick 14% gain in a few weeks (on CAPS and in real life)... so I didn't stick around for that 9% div. I even said then that the stock may wander lower with the other financials. I think I just got lucky for the quick gain. But I still believe in the company, and am, at least in CAPS, willing to risk that the div will be cut. So, I'm back in again, and we will see if I can hold onto this for more than a few weeks this time.
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timattox (97.26) Submitted: 5/29/08 1:58 PM
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Hmm, there may be more going on here than I had originally thought. I apparently missed thishttp://www.thestreet.com/story/10417550/1/citi-funds-woes-hit-wachovia-fifth-third.html?puc=btlhome">TheStreet article about a huge loss in a hedge fund investment.I only noticed it today when reading this http://seekingalpha.com/article/79362-banking-sector-buy-when-there-s-blood-in-the-streets?source=yahoo">SeekingAlpha article.But since this was over a week ago, this was surely already priced in. So, I'm still happy with my pick, though a bit concerned I didn't see this before.
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timattox (97.26) Submitted: 5/29/08 2:04 PM
Doh, my embedded html links got totally messed up. So much for the "preview" button being useful.Anyway, the short version is that FITB invested a third (600m or so) of their Bank Owned Life Insurance (BOLI) portfolio in a risky Citi hedge fund (Falcon) which just lost 75% of its value. FITB is suing the other parties involved... but they (FITB) should have known better. Shame on them.
timattox (97.26) Submitted: 6/13/08 10:19 AM
I should be more careful when I bet against the combined wisdom of CAPS... this single-star rated stock has plummeted in the short term. I still think they will recover long term, but I am sure glad I didn't put real money into this a 2nd time. I guess it doesn't matter if a stock is at a 10+ year low... it can still go lower if the company, or industry it is in, is in trouble.Honestly, this may be the perfect time to get in with real money, since it has gone all that much lower... but I would wait for some sign that the bottom has been reached. I don't see that yet.
timattox (97.26) Submitted: 6/18/08 5:43 PM
Hmpf... At today's ~$10 stock price, and the decreased div, I wonder how many fixed-income investors are going to bail out, or if they have already done so. Also, at this stock price, the recent acquisition is going to be very dilutive on earnings (losses), AFAIK. This has really tuned sour. But, luckily, I don't have any real money in this one. I almost did... luckily my day-only limit order at 12.54 didn't fill yesterday! :-)Good luck longs... I'm gonna keep this on my CAPS scorecard (along with FMD) to remind me that things can go from bad to worse to "much worse" even for good companies.
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