Bank of America

[2B]

My last and only individual stock in my portfolio in Bank of America. I bought a bank stock over a decade ago and it was eventually acquired. My cost basis is around $7/share.

On Thursday something amazing happened. The dividend yield is now higher than 2 year CDs available on Etrade. Friday had a trivial bounce.

Their earning are growing. They just announced an increase in the dividend. Is this a place for "safe" return?

 

[Texas Proud]

Yes.... bank and the big oils pay good dividends and are mostly 'safe' investments...

BofA is a hugh bank that is almost takeover proof... if you are a real long term holder you don't care about the ups and downs of the stock.... just keep getting that dividend check...

 

[martyb]

I'm a federal gov't employee with DOD. I have a government travel card, which is a Bank of America VISA card. I can't say with authority that ALL federal employees and military have these particular cards, but it is a fact that most DOD folks, including military are now issued some kind of credit card to use for official government business, especially travel related expenses. I've traveled 4 times this year on business, and used the card every time. So.....with the govt. being so deeply in business with BOA, I would hope they're solvent. Probably as safe as any right now. PS, my travels this year have taken me to Salt Lake City, Elm Springs MO, Tucson AZ & Niagara Falls, NY. Tough job, but somebody's gotta do it!

 

[tricky88]

I first started buying BAC stock in 1998. I still buy a little every month and reinvest all the dividends. After their recently announced 14% bump in dividends, I am earning an 8.4% return on the cost of my shares.

The rise in the share price hasn't been great over the past 9 years, but I really don't care too much about that. 15 years from now, when I finally start to think about using those dividends, I hope that they'll be huge.

I believe that BAC has been raising their dividend an avg. of 14% over the past 5 years as well.

 

[bssc]

I have 100 shares so you are not alone.

 

[DRiP Guy]

I held BAC for a long time, but I sold it out of spite/frustration when their service went to heck in a handbasket and stayed there, and their strategic direction is to help illegal immigrants, and huge accounts -- in other words, anyone but people like me, who put the money in BAC's pockets to begin with.

Might still be a good investment in the abstract, but I allow myself the personal decision on this one to stand on principle.

 

[VaCollector]

My ER is almost totally based on BAC!....and while that is not by choice (I inherited most of it)....after much soul searching and reading through the vast depths of information provided here and evaluating the possibility of moving everything to Vanguard, etc. ...and studying other sources suggested here....I have [-]pulled my hair out worrying[/-] finally come to the conclusion that I do not need to focus on BAC's current stock price as IT MAKES ABSOLUTELY NO DIFFERENCE TO ME AS LONG AS I AM ONLY RELIANT ON THE DIDVIDENDS THAT THE STOCK PRODUCES! (sorry for the shouting, but that was as much for me as for anyone else.....as my fragile male ego is still somewhat affected by any loss of value )

My basis in the stock is slightly higher than yours at about $55 and with BAC's recent venture into the 40's, I have used it as a buying opportunity to increase my rate of return via the dividends....and with next quarter's increase to 64 cents/share....I can only smile and TRY to remember that (if the past is any indication and all of the experts are right about the solidity of BAC) the $100K+ that I no longer have [-]should...please, please, please[/-] will come back as long as I am patient.

 

[2B]

My ER is almost totally based on BAC!....and while that is not by choice (I inherited most of it)....after much soul searching and reading through the vast depths of information provided here and evaluating the possibility of moving everything to Vanguard, etc. ...and studying other sources suggested here....I have [-]pulled my hair out worrying[/-] finally come to the conclusion that I do not need to focus on BAC's current stock price as IT MAKES ABSOLUTELY NO DIFFERENCE TO ME AS LONG AS I AM ONLY RELIANT ON THE DIDVIDENDS THAT THE STOCK PRODUCES! (sorry for the shouting, but that was as much for me as for anyone else.....as my fragile male ego is still somewhat affected by any loss of value )

My advice is to not have more than 10% and, preferably, no more that 4% in a single stock. The risk to your future is too great. Remember Enron.

 

[Mavourneen]

I have owned BAC for almost 8 years. Quicken says my average annual total return is just over 12% for that time period.

 

[VaCollector]

Just how loowwww can she goooo! BAC at $47.01.....

OK you techno geeks (said with affection as I am the 1st to admit that I don't understand "candles" and "falling knives", etc.)...any way to tell if we are even near the bottom yet??

 

[2B]

Just how loowwww can she goooo! BAC at $47.01.....

OK you techno geeks (said with affection as I am the 1st to admit that I don't understand "candles" and "falling knives", etc.)...any way to tell if we are even near the bottom yet??

I used to believe in technical analysis and worked hard at it for several years. I eventually figured out it was only useful in describing what happened after it happened. It wasn't worth crap in predicting anything. You do get to sound very knowledgeable and sophisticated while babbling on about meaningless garbage.

I will be at the bottom when it goes back up. This whole market is volatility whacko. The level of fear over the subprime loans is way out of proportion but the over-reaction runs the risk of actually causing what everyone is afraid of -- a total collapse of the credit markets.

 

[CyclingInvestor]

My advice is to not have more than 10% and, preferably, no more that 4% in a single stock. The risk to your future is too great. Remember Enron.

Enron is the kind of stock which screamed GET OUT long before there was
any trouble. I used to follow it when it was an NG pipeline company. It was a
nice conservative, very profitable, well-run company. Then they suddenly
decided to become a new age company, selling off their pipelines for a song
to the men who had run them within Enron (Kinder Morgan), laying fiber-optic
cables and playing with energy futures. I stopped tracking them then and started
tracking Kinder Morgan instead (although I did not buy KMI until the
new structure built a track record). When a company makes a complete about-
face like this, disaster follows way too often.

 

[VaCollector]

Enron is the kind of stock which screamed GET OUT long before there was
any trouble........ When a company makes a complete about- face like this, disaster follows way too often.

OMG....you don't really think that BAC is another ENRON do you? ....BAC is only down ~ 14.5% since last November.....not WONDERFUL news I know, but much better than several others.....

 

[FIRE'd@51]

OMG....you don't really think that BAC is another ENRON do you?

No, don't worry about that. Actually, BAC had a pretty good day today, relatively speaking. It was down less than the market, and considerably less than the other big banks.

 

[brewer12345]

If BAC goes under, you will have more important things to wory about - like which overpass you'd like to sleep under tonightand what kind of roadkill will be dinner. Don't wory about it.

 

[CyclingInvestor]

OMG....you don't really think that BAC is another ENRON do you? ....BAC is only down ~ 14.5% since last November.....not WONDERFUL news I know, but much better than several others.....

No. But if BAC sold all their banking assets cheaply, then went heavily into
riverboat gambling and ethanol production (equivalent to Enron's actions),
I would definitely think that a debacle was brewing.

 

[VaCollector]

If BAC goes under, you will have more important things to worry about - like which overpass you'd like to sleep under tonight and what kind of roadkill will be dinner. Don't worry about it.

Thanks Brewer!......I truly feel that BAC is safer than most anything else that I could own, but it's always nice to hear some reassurance ....especially from the board's "bank stock specialist"!