Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
  • PRBLX finally dumps WFC
    And now a pissy rep too. I trust I can do even more.
    @msf, it is you who has pointed out the issues with singling out WFC. I never stop at headlines. Yes, it was and is the failure to offer modifications. If in fact their failures in this regard were and are not worse than others', or indeed not as bad, your pointing it out is a good thing, and the articles are unfair.
    Back when I had all of my LCV (indeed all LC) moneys in PRBLX, I did not track their holdings, bank or other, just trusted their judgment. Their WFC decisions and nonresponsiveness to shareholder queries caused me to leave them altogether. (WFC was acquired during 2016, so far as I can detect.) They had BAC at some point, I thought, in the 2000s, since I both owned it individually (wish I'd kept) and was interested in who else. I too do not see ownership, going back to 2009. Not interested enough to go back to 1993 to see if my memory is any good. At one point BAC generally was on the radar of SRI types: future in-laws were friends with old management, and a neighbor was a decisionmaker for the Calvert funds. But I could be misremembering.
  • PRBLX finally dumps WFC
    "Ah, poor WFC, then, unfairly singled out in headlines."
    Hard to tell what you're communicating here. Is it that you find WF isn't worse than the others, it's just that if one doesn't read past the headlines one might get this mistaken impression?
    For example, you said that the 400 foreclosures were "accidental foreclosures". What was accidental (if that is the right word) was the failure to offer modifications. The foreclosures themselves appear proper. Assuming you got the term from headlines, that is indeed an example of misleading headlines regarding WF.
    Your next cite serves as another example. Here, the headline doesn't name any bank at all. Perhaps that's because WF isn't one of the highlighted banks in the article? (WF is just one of the unnamed "number of other big money-center banks have been fined over $10 billion.")
    Sizzle sells, and right now WF is sizzling. Hence the headlines.
    "MF liked its chances last Dec"
    Do you mean Motley Fool or Matt Frankel (not that it matters)?
    "Should check whether Parnassus still holds BAC."
    Still?
    At least as of the last annual report (Dec 31, 2017), all that any Parnassus fund held with BAC were some CDs indirectly via CDARS. (No change in the June 30, 2018 semi-annual.) I also spot checked PARNX, PRBLX (the subject of this thread), and PARWX quarterly going back to 12/2016 without finding BAC. I could always have missed something.
    One can look up all the holdings for each fund, by month, here:
    https://www.parnassus.com/parnassus-mutual-funds/#parnassus/fund-holdings?fd=PARNX&hdt=2018-06-30
    What (former) Parnassus BAC holding are you referring to?
  • 10 Funds To Buy For High-Yield Preferred Stocks
    Hi @Starchild, for what its worth .
    I have owned NPSAX, off & on, through the years. Currently, I do not own this fund as its total return (nav expansion) can not cover its distributions this results in a negative total return year-to-date. I'm thinking this is due to a rising interest rate environment where a good number of income securities are having a difficult time maintaining their value while meeting their income distributions.
    In reviewing NPSAX's Moringstar report I am finding that through August 7th it has had a negative ytd total return of -1.63%. So, even though it has a nice yield its loosing principal value and is not covering its yield resulting in a nav contraction. On the other hand my money market mutual fund GBAXX has a positive ytd total return of 0.94%. With this, I've been reducing my fixed income positions if they can not keep pace (or out perform) my money market mutual fund.
    With this, I'm building cash over buying fixed income securities. The exception, for me, is in a bank loan fund that I own along with some hybrid income funds where their nav's are be maintained (or even growing) while meeting their income distributions.
    Appreciate the comment @old_skeet. Sort of a curiosity for me at this point. I'm 43 and more in accumulation mode as opposed to adding more fixed, but doesn't hurt to investigate future plans. Looks like most fixed income is down this year, but I'm in it for the long haul. My only fixed is PONAX and I'm sticking with it. :-)
  • PRBLX finally dumps WFC
    It's droll that I seem to have some purity rep here. Or perhaps it's just alleged unfairness toward WFC.
    Barney gave an interview recently:
    http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/08/barney-frank-on-his-regrets-from-the-great-recession.html
  • PRBLX finally dumps WFC
    @Davidrmoran By the way, would you be opposed to an ESG fund that holds stocks you find ethically reprehensible but is filing shareholder resolutions with those companies to try to improve them? If this tactic of engagement rather than exclusion doesn't bother you, you might want to check out Walden Asset Management:https://morningstar.com/funds/XNAS/WSBFX/quote.html
    Walden was the one by the way that filed a resolution with Vanguard funds to get them to publish policies about climate change's impact to their portfolios and how they would vote on environmental proposals: waldenassetmgmt.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/StatementVanguardAug2017.pdf
    The truth is, none of these ESG funds are perfect, but some trend in the right direction.
  • PRBLX finally dumps WFC
    Ah, poor WFC, then, unfairly singled out in headlines.
    BoA the most fines too, as of Feb:
    https://www.marketwatch.com/story/banks-have-been-fined-a-staggering-243-billion-since-the-financial-crisis-2018-02-20
    MF liked its chances last Dec:
    https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/11/30/better-buy-wells-fargo-company-vs-bank-of-america.aspx
    BoA up ~~10% since then, WFC up ~5%, if my calcs are good.
    Should check whether Parnassus still holds BAC.
  • PRBLX finally dumps WFC
    WF failed to offer mortgage modifications to 625 homeowners because of an error in computing attorneys' fees. Sure we can consider this as evidence of how bad WF was in processing modifications, regardless of whether the causes were intent or plain ineptitude or a combination of both.
    So then add those 625 to the 800,000 other homeowners who "could have qualified under the administration's mortgage modification program if the banks had done a better job ." Remember, the recent WF disclosure pertains to old errors, some dating all the way back to 2010.
    That eight hundred thousand figure comes from a Sept. 2012 study done by people "from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, the government's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Ohio State University, Columbia Business School, and the University of Chicago."
    Not surprisingly, while the study doesn't name names, it clearly lays most of the blame at the feet of the TBTF banks:
    A “few large servicers [have offered] modifications at half the rate of others,” the authors say The largest mortgage servicers are Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Citi.
    https://www.propublica.org/article/foreclosure-fail-study-pins-blame-on-big-banks
    So were the TBTF banks all just as bad, or does one stand out among them? Turns out that one was much worse that the others.
    Wait for it ... wait for it ...
    Bank of America in particular (the largest of all the servicers when HAMP launched) has been far slower to modify loans than even the other large servicers, as other analyses we've cited have shown.
    Ibid.
  • 10 Funds To Buy For High-Yield Preferred Stocks
    Hi @Starchild, for what its worth ...
    I have owned NPSAX, off & on, through the years. Currently, I do not own this fund as its total return (nav expansion) can not cover its distributions this results in a negative total return year-to-date. I'm thinking this is due to a rising interest rate environment where a good number of income securities are having a difficult time maintaining their value while meeting their income distributions.
    In reviewing NPSAX's Moringstar report I am finding that through August 7th it has had a negative ytd total return of -1.63%. So, even though it has a nice yield its loosing principal value and is not covering its yield resulting in a nav contraction. On the other hand my money market mutual fund GBAXX has a positive ytd total return of 0.94%. With this, I've been reducing my fixed income positions if they can not keep pace (or out perform) my money market mutual fund.
    With this, I'm building cash over buying fixed income securities. The exception, for me, is in a bank loan fund that I own along with some hybrid income funds where their nav's are be maintained (or even growing) while meeting their income distributions.
  • ESG funds - Aug. 2018 issue
    I'm sorry but the following is mathematically provable: If (a) you have a perfect screen and then (b) your screen for what stocks to buy excludes certain companies b/c they are 'evil' or meet some other criterion, then your maximum return can only decline. (Your return from the narrower universe of stocks may be the same as the return from the wider universe of stocks if the 'evil' stocks happen to fail your screen - but otherwise the maximum return from the narrower universe will be lower.)
    That said, the only possible conclusion is that fund managers in the ESG field have better screens. (One might posit that the ESG field attracts smarter managers who build better screens, but, attractive as that idea is, I don't see any data supporting it.)
  • PRBLX finally dumps WFC
    Phony accounts:
    Wells Fargo isn't the only bank where heavy sales pressure led employees to open fake accounts.
    A federal review triggered by the Wells Fargo scandal found that "weaknesses" at other banks led employees to open accounts without proof of customer consent — just like Wells Fargo did — according to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
    ... Citigroup (C), US Bank and Bank of America declined to comment.
    https://money.cnn.com/2018/06/06/news/companies/wells-fargo-fake-accounts-banks-occ/index.html
    Emission tests fraud:
    Collusion Between Germany's Biggest Carmakers
    The diesel scandal is not a failure on the part of individual companies, but rather the result of collusion among German automakers that lasted for years. Audi, BMW, Daimler, Volkswagen and Porsche coordinated their activities in more than a thousand meetings.
    http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/the-cartel-collusion-between-germany-s-biggest-carmakers-a-1159471.html
    The motor industry was embroiled in a new diesel emissions scandal last night [June 11, 2018] after 774,000 Mercedes-Benz vehicles were found to contain cheating software.
    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/mercedes-faces-mass-recall-for-cheating-diesel-software-l0378ctf3
    The raids on Tuesday, in which about 100 investigators targeted BMW offices in Munich and an engine factory in Austria, suggested that all of Germany’s top domestic automakers may have evaded emissions rules, although perhaps not to the same degree as Volkswagen.
    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/20/business/energy-environment/bmw-diesel-emissions.html
    Ford became the latest company to become embroiled in the issue, with drivers in a U.S. lawsuit claiming some 500,000 Super Duty pickup trucks were rigged to beat emissions tests.
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/why-carmaker-cheating-probes-stay-in-high-gear-quicktake-qanda/2018/01/10/318b6d5a-f632-11e7-9af7-a50bc3300042_story.html?utm_term=.da98430847ad
    It's not so easy to pick and choose less bad from bad.
    With respect to the 400 or so WF foreclosures - these were the result of an "automated miscalculation of attorneys’ fees that were included for purposes of determining whether a customer qualified for a mortgage loan modification." (From WF filing.) That's ineptitude, not malice. Not that the government didn't facilitate this:
    No Republican sign-off was necessary for Obama’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). The Treasury Department alone decided to run it through mortgage companies that had financial incentives to foreclose rather than modify loans. Treasury never saw the program as a relief vehicle, but a way to “foam the runway” for the banks, allowing them to absorb inevitable foreclosures more slowly.
    Obama Failed to Mitigate America's Foreclosure Crisis
    https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/12/obamas-failure-to-mitigate-americas-foreclosure-crisis/510485/
    As to how long to hold the companies responsible (I agree with sending the execs to prison), how about at least as long as the effects of their acts endure? Which can be a mighty long time. We still don't know the extent of long term effects of all the fraudulent foreclosures.
    Food for thought when considering duration: How Redlining’s Racist Effects Lasted for Decades
    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/24/upshot/how-redlinings-racist-effects-lasted-for-decades.html
  • PRBLX finally dumps WFC
    Just in case other readers infer that your retrospective pointings and cites are not stretched equivalence, here's the lede from the Observer:
    Wells Fargo is facing fresh outrage over its latest revelation of harm to customers, after the bank admitted last week that its error contributed to hundreds of people losing their homes to foreclosure.
    In the disclosure, made in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, Wells said its error caused more than 600 people in foreclosure to be incorrectly denied, or not offered, modifications to make home loans more affordable. Of that group, about 400 ultimately lost their homes, according to the bank, which apologized for the mistake.

    Bf is mine, to make clear it's not foreclosures like other institutions.
    But the rest of the short piece is worth reading.
    I would like to understand the $12.8k settlement process. Not seeing the correlation w the $8M setaside, though that seems paltry too.
    And yes, yes, yes, and yes again, other banks were bad too.
  • New Details About Wilbur Ross’ Business Point To Pattern Of Grifting - Invesco
    Seems like Invesco may have overpaid for his firm because of Ross's persistent grifting:
    https://forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2018/08/06/new-details-about-wilbur-rosss-businesses-point-to-pattern-of-grifting/
    This is our Secretary of Commerce:
    From Ross’ vantage point, Trump offered the perfect exit. The future cabinet secretary’s private equity funds were underperforming—one on track to lose 26% of its initial value and another two dribbling out mediocre returns—and the accusations were starting to pile up. Roughly two months before the 2016 presidential election, the SEC announced WL Ross was paying a fine and refunding $11.9 million it allegedly skimmed from its investors, including interest. The scheme was complex. Like other private equity firms—including several that coughed up money to the SEC around the same time—WL Ross derived much of its revenue from management fees charged to its investors. With funds as large as $4.1 billion, management fees of 1.5% could alone bring in more than $60 million a year for Ross’ firm—serious money.
    But WL Ross promised that it would give its investors something like a rebate. For example, when Ross and his colleagues got certain fees for working on deals, they were supposed to give at least 50% of that money back to investors. But, according to SEC investigators, the firm gave back less than it suggested it would and pocketed the difference, leading the feds to conclude Ross’ firm broke laws that prohibit defrauding and misleading clients. WL Ross paid the big settlement but never admitted guilt.
    According to the feds, WL Ross charged some of those inappropriate fees in the years before the commerce secretary sold his firm to Invesco for $100 million up front and the possibility of another $275 million down the road. That meant that when Ross cashed out, he presumably did so at bigger valuation than he deserved. In a statement, Ross suggested that Invesco never clawed any of that money back. “The terms of the sale of my business in 2006 remain unchanged,” he said. Invesco declined to comment.
    There is more to the story. According to five former WL Ross employees and investors, the firm was also charging its investors on money that it had lost. Here’s how it worked: If WL Ross made an investment of, say, $100 million that declined dramatically, in the final years of the fund the firm was supposed to charge management fees on the actual value of the investment, not the $100 million starting point. However, WL Ross allegedly continued collecting fees on the amount invested, taking more than it deserved. WL Ross was allegedly even charging fees on one investment that was essentially worthless. When approached about the discrepancy, Wilbur Ross initially insisted his firm was calculating the fees correctly, according to someone familiar with those discussions. “There are all sorts of fee issues,” says an investor, “but it was just the most egregious that I’ve seen.”
    https://bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2018/08/07/invesco-lumped-into-forbes-wilbur-ross-grifting.html
    Invesco has seen its stock plunge since Jan. 26, 2018 — from $38.4 per share to $25.68 as of Tuesday morning.
  • PRBLX finally dumps WFC
    True, but you don't have to look too far to find they've all had dirt on their hands at one point:
    https://rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/bank-of-america-too-crooked-to-fail-232177/
    https://nytimes.com/2017/03/30/business/dealbook/new-firms-catching-up-to-banks-in-foreclosure-rankings.html
    The question is which is the cleanest now and which is the dirtiest and which will be the cleanest tomorrow and five years from now and which will be the dirtiest? This will weigh on these banks not just from an ethical perspective, but on their future returns. The other question to ask is which ESG mutual fund will be the first to pick up on potential malfeasance? Since this is a MF site and you are obviously unhappy with PRBLX, which ESG fund do you think will do a better job at catching and reacting to this sort of thing? I guess what I'm thinking is that PRBLX is at least trying to do the right thing. The fact that it failed to do so in a timely fashion is a black eye, but I wonder which ESG funds get it right on financial stocks?
  • 10 Funds To Buy For High-Yield Preferred Stocks
    FYI: (I highly recommend preferred stocks or funds for stability and income. I held PFF for many years, selling to use proceeds to fry other fish.)
    Preferred stocks – a high-yield asset that’s typically referred to as a stock-bond “hybrid” because it has characteristics of each – are treading water this year after a strong showing in 2017.
    But that’s OK. Preferred stocks typically aren’t bought for upside potential – it’s about stability and income.
    Regards,
    Ted
    Click On View All:
    https://www.fidelity.com/insights/investing-ideas/preferred-stocks-funds-to-watch
    WSJ Preferred Stock Tables:
    http://www.wsj.com/mdc/public/page/2_3024-Preferreds.html?mod=mdc_uss_pglnk
    Quantum Online.Com:
    http://www.quantumonline.com/QuickStart.cfm
  • 12 Low-Cost Active Funds That Are Beating The S&P 500
    There are a few differences between a sector fund as bee compared too versus DSENX. In theory, CAPE will rotate sectors within the fund, not stay stagnant with 1 sector. In that it holds a 'diversified' selection of 4 (or is it 5) sectors also sets it apart from a comparison with a specific sector fund. You may not be broadly investing with a fund like DSENX, but you certainly are more diversified than a sector fund like FSMEX. I don't think you can compare returns from the 2.
  • 12 Low-Cost Active Funds That Are Beating The S&P 500
    @bee,
    >> isn't sector weighting the very "secret sauce" that make DSENX so special?
    well, hmm, I never thought about it that way. Not really sectors, I think. When you do regular auto-churning per valuation criteria in the SP500 space, I guess it seems to be not very close to the 115 or whatever it is holdings of Fido Sel Tech. But an interesting take.
    Fido should concoct a fund based on auto-cycling among Select portfolios. There used to be a service that did that, or maybe more than one.