WaMu blues: Stock hits 52-week low
Just a quickie: Washington Mutual shares fell as low as $5.75 today, a 52-week low, on worries that the Fed is done cutting rates and WaMu faces further loan write-offs.
Today's low of $5.75 per share marks an 87% decline from the stock's 52-week high of $44.19, according to CNBC.com stats. Lemme say that again: an 87% decline in market value.
Analysis: This is a company that would otherwise be ripe for a takeover. The problem is, buyers are scarce in today's corporate world. The two relatively strong hands in the game -- Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase -- have their hands full. There is probably a foreign buyer out there, but there are probably numerous members of Congress who wouldn't like the idea of a foreign buyer of America's largest thrift.
Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com
Photo credit: Bloomberg News
W
WAMU pretty much deserves everything its getting and maybe a little more.
On the other hand, I should probably close my accounts with them before they do it for me...
Posted by: Ramador | June 11, 2008 at 01:52 PM
an 87% decline in market value.....
I wonder if/when we will see houses in LA that this phrase is describing them.
As in house prices in LA are now 87% decline in market value....
For those curious about WAMU and they 87% decline down to $5.75. Look at their massive amounts of 2nd mortgages, home equity loans, and HELOCs. Most of these are literally worth 0 on the dollar....AMAZING!
I have a credit card with WAMU that has 0% APR for 15 months...A month ago, i alone "took" $55,000 from WAMU....I wonder how does that look on their balance sheets...
Posted by: Laker | June 11, 2008 at 04:04 PM
Who *didn't* see this coming?
The WAMU location on 3rd near Gardner and the one on Fairfax & Beverly had those BIG ASS brightly painted windows pimping 100k HELOCS with no income verification, no credit check and no SSN required.
Posted by: E | June 11, 2008 at 06:23 PM
Even a foreign buyer wouldn't buy this one. Even after the subprime collapse, Wamu still has tens of billions in loans that are worthless. They just got a $7 billion bailout yet they still have $58.9 billion in option adjustable rate loans on their books. $44 billion of these loans are low-documentation, or limited proof of jobs, income, or assets. That's three out of every four. How many of these will default? How many are in California? This is why we are still in the early innings of this real estate DEPRESSION.
Read the story:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/
businesstechnology/2004347122_wamu14.html
Posted by: coakl | June 11, 2008 at 11:23 PM
Pop Quiz:
Question # 1: "from those wonderful people who
brought you the Jap Zero"
Question # 2: "from those wonderful people who
brought you the Stevenson Ranch"
answer: #1 Mitsubishi
#2 Washington Mutual
(Wall Street has taken the Wawa
out of their Mumu).
Posted by: yours truly, Johnny Dollar | June 12, 2008 at 07:13 AM
People seem to forget that Wamu is a thrift bank (the largest in the nation), and a thrift bank is required, by federal regulations to tie a certain percentage of it's assets into the housing market. In addition to that the community reinvestment act, enacted by congress in 1977, mandates that each banking institution be evaluated to determine if it has met the credit needs of its entire community, this includes lower income, borrowers that are not as credit worthy. Of course that means that they will take more losses.
Posted by: Drew Garrity | June 12, 2008 at 07:34 PM