Bear Stearns, one of the world’s largest investment banks and brokerage firms, was bought out yesterday by JPMorgan Chase for $2 per share. At that price, BSC shares have fallen by 98.8% since their peak of $169.91 on Jan 19 2007.
From an investor’s perspective, such a steep decline is bad enough, but even worse is the fact that as at Friday March 14 2008, the so-called “Analyst Recommendations” for Bear Stearns in the Investing Section on Reuters was, laughably enough, hovering betwen Hold and Buy! Of the 16 so-called “analysts” polled by Reuters, 3 considered BSC a “Buy” at $30 (!), 1 called “Outperform” and 11 said Bear Stearns was a “Hold” — only 1 unidentified brave soul rated BSC a “Sell”.
…from this admittedly small sample, one might well be tempted to conclude that the rate of honesty on Wall Street is 1/16, or about 6%…but at times, even that low figure seems high.
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If you could find an honest person for every sixteen you meet on Wall Street, you’re on a roll, my friend!
Bear Stearns has to be one of the great cautionary business tales of all time.