Whatever credibility Dick Bove of Rochdale Securities has left can now be thrown out the window. It won’t matter at CNBC or Fox Business though, because for some reason he’s considered a guru analyst in the financial sector. Following Wells Fargo’s (WFC) earnings yesterday morning, he was on CNBC with the following comments before the market opened:
At the beginning of the segment he said Wells Fargo “has its loan losses under control” and that they “should be able to grow revenues by increasing loan volumes”. At the 1:20 mark he said Wells Fargo was one of the three financial companies that “should do well in the market today and lift all financial stocks.” To close out his thoughts on the financials, he called Wells Fargo a “standout” with those earnings numbers.
Now fast forward a few hours later to about 30 minutes before the market close yesterday. Bove issues a surprising Sell rating on Wells Fargo, downgrading the stock from Neutral. This morning he was on Fox Business explaining his Sell rating. Here are the highlights from his comments about Wells Fargo:
– not expanding its loan book
– margins on loans being sold going to come down
– big increase in loan losses through the beginning of next yeare
– unsustainable gains in their hedging portfolio
– will take about a year to get its position back where it should be
In response to the flip flop, Bove defended himself by saying he didn’t have all the results when he went on the air. Then why are you making an analysis?! Why not just say give me a few more minutes until I have all the facts. It’s irresponsible and reckless behavior at best.
Good article! The same night, someone called into Jim Cramer’s show and asked about it. His response was something like, “Make up your mind!” and “Several years ago, he came into my office and convinced me to short all of my Wells Fargo stock. Thanks to him, I lost hundreds of thousands.