Investors, Analysts Dour on IndyMac’s Prospects

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A day after announcing it will end most mortgage lending operations, IndyMac Bancorp Inc. took a pounding Tuesday on Wall Street.

The Pasadena-based savings and loan’s stock price dropped more than 40 percent in afternoon trading to just 40 cents. Meanwhile, Paul Miller, an analyst with Friedman Billings Ramsey & Co., lowered his target price for the company’s stock to zero.

Though Miller said he does not expect the company to collapse, he wrote in a research report, “We do not believe that there is any value left for common shareholders.”

Compounding the problems for IndyMac, Fitch Ratings on Tuesday lowered its long-term issuer default ratings as a result of the company’s “weakening capital position,” the agency said in a statement. Fitch lowered the company’s rating to “CC” from “B-” and its banking unit’s rating to “CCC” from “B.” All of the grades are considered non-investment grade.

The company said in a regulatory filing Tuesday morning that it “has continued to experience elevated levels of deposit withdrawals” since New York Sen. Charles Schumer wrote a letter in late June expressing concern over the company’s financial health.

In a letter to shareholders Monday, IndyMac said it will stop accepting new loan submissions and will cut its workforce by 3,800 positions. Additionally, the company said it is no longer considered “well capitalized” in the view of regulators in part because of its inability to raise fresh capital.

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