Jim Hawthorne

E*Trade: Primed To Turn Around?

ezmaass1,
Excellent account of the fallout from what we agree was an irresponsible piece of trash on Bhatia's part!
Yes, I've read the 'Furtune' article, but was left with more questions than answers, such as how on earth a Wall Street veteran like E-Trade CEO Layton could make the statements like, "I was not aware of how rumors in a vacuum could move fast and move the stock so much."
I was stunned to read this, and was flabbergasted that he would refer to the environment of 11/11/07 as a "vacuum".
Let's not forget that the Friday before Bhatia made his stab, the news on E-Trade included news of an SEC investigation, further mortgage-related losses and the withdrawal of earnings guidance, &etc. E-Trade, through a string of poor management decisions and horrid risk-management had cultivated a very fertile patch of ground for his seeds to land on.
Let's also note that more reasoned analysis from Bloomberg, Forbes, the WSJ and others instantly appeared, and yet failed to change the trend. See below...

blogs.wsj.com/deals/20.../
www.bloggingstocks.com.../
www.forbes.com/2007/11...
www.bloomberg.com/apps...

However, I do agree with you that the events of 11/12/07 were devastating to E-Trade, and I do hope that this company can truly turn things around. Until they and others in the Financials do so, there will be hope for a broader long-term recovery....

E*Trade: Primed To Turn Around?

Wait a minute here!
Sure E-Trade "tanked" on November 12, 2007;from a close of $8.59 on November 11 to $3.55
Serious? of course it was, but let's see now... The stock peaked on June 6, 2007 at $26.60 close, and then spent the next 5 months steadily traveling south as earnings and sales growth deteriorated.
This was well before the sensational Bhatia article, which put the final nail in the coffin... But let's not shoot the messenger!
Before encouraging folks to charge into this stock (which might very well be turning around), perhaps Cindy could expend as much energy examining how ETFC got to be where it was on November 11 as she does mourning the events of November 12th!
Turn around from what??? No, NOT November 12, 2007!!! Lets see a turnaround from the conditions that prompted the fall from June 6, 2007!
In June '07, E-Trade's earnings had been as flat as its priceline for about a year, even as its sales and revenues were already gradually declining...
The eggs were already broken way before Bhatia made the omlet!
Today, ETFC just might be turning around, but the path ahead will be a very, very steep one, and E-Trade will have to pull off a miracle in sales growth in a tough and badly damaged market just to survive.
It has been sitting there like a ruptured duck and one would think it just might be an attractive buy-out candidate after dropping some 85% in nine months!
E-trade looks more like a recurring "pop-and-drop" candidate that will move on hype and profit-taking until we see some solid company growth! But, maybe I'm missing something...