Buy Low: Jamie Dimon Scoops Up $17 Million in JPMorgan Stock
There's believing in your business and then there's buying $17 million worth of your business's stock three months after suffering billions in massive, embarrassing losses. Jamie Dimon apparently believes JPMorgan will come back following the "London Whale" incident.
RELATED: JP Morgan Traders Lied About How Much Money They Lost
Jamie Dimon first revealed the company's $2 billion loss during a May 10 earnings call, when he explained they were "egregious mistakes." Since then, the staff credited with overseeing the massive losses have been let go, including Chief Investment Officer Ina Drew, risk manager Irvin Goldman and Bruno Iskil, the so-called London Whale. The losses were revealed to be significantly larger than first reported, somewhere in the $5.8 to $9 billion range, and departed staff were subjected to harsh clawbacks from JPMorgan Chase in an effort to recoup something, anything, for the losses.
RELATED: The London Whale May Have Actually Cost JP Morgan $9 Billion
Which is a way of explaining it's been a tough few months for JPMorgan Chase. Their stock price has, predictably, fallen since that fateful day in May. It was trading around $43 a share days before the conference call. It opened at about $40 on May 10, and immediately plummeted after. The stock hit its lowest point since the disclosure on July 4th at a $31 share price. This is what the stock chart looks like:
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It's rallied a bit since and was trading at about $34 or $35 a share on Thursday and Friday when Jamie Dimon decided to purchase $17 million in common shares of JPMorgan Chase. About $12 million was for himself, another $2.5 million for his wife, and the rest for a limited liability company. He also sold $13.5 million in preferred JP Morgan stock that was spread over different charities and trusts. Assuming JPMorgan can regain their old stock price over the next few months, Dimon stands to make (roughly) a cool $4 million as a bonus just for doing his job.
