Why Interest is Rising in Bank Stocks
With the Great Recession a distant memory, the financial sector hopes to cap a great recovery.
By Lou Carlozo, Contributor March 12, 2019, at 11:34 a.m.
Not only can you buy shares on Wall Street: You can literally buy shares in Wall Street, as the financial sector boasts some heavy hitters so far as dividend stocks go.
Yet putting your money in banks (as in banking and finance stocks) isn’t a sure thing by a long shot. Just ask those who wiped out on Bear Stearns in 2008, or watched their shares in Citigroup (ticker: C) go on life support around the same time; the company lost 93 percent of its value in 19 months when it hit a rock bottom of $17.80 in March 2009.
Very few people bought Citigroup back then – but if you did, you’ve seen the investment leap, with shares today trading at about $62. And the quarterly dividend that was only worth a penny a share back in 2013? It’s up to 45 cents.