Can BNY Mellon’s New Helmsman Gerald Hassell Turn the Stock Around?

The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (NYSE:BK) saw the company’s President Gerald L. Hassell elevated to the post of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the company at the end of August. ^[1] Hassell has been the company’s President and a member of the board since 1998 and succeeds Robert P. Kelly who held the bank’s top job the last 4 years. BNY Mellon, with $26.3 trillion in assets under custody and administration, primarily competes with State Street (NYSE:STT), JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) and Citigroup (NYSE:C) in providing investment servicing and investment management services to institutional investors around the world.

The announcement came within days of the bank being deemed the safest U.S.-based bank in the “World’s 50 Safest Banks” ranking compiled by the Global Finance magazine. ^[2] BNY Mellon has held this distinction for three years now. However the bank’s stock has not been spared the overwhelming wave of negative sentiment investors hold against financial institutions – the shares have dropped from above $31 at the start of the year to around the $20 mark currently. The bank’s top management seems to believe that the stock is significantly undervalued as evidenced by the series of stock purchases by company bigwigs including Hassell, over the last 2 weeks. ^[3]

We continue to maintain a $34.40 price estimate for BNY Mellon’s stock.

Check out our full analysis for BNY Mellon’s stock here

1. Gerald L. Hassell Named Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of BNY Mellon, BNY Mellon News Releases, Aug 31 2011 [↩]
2. BNY Mellon Repeats as Safest Bank in the U.S. in Global Finance Magazine Survey, BNY Mellon News Releases, Aug 25 2011 [↩]
3. BK Mellon Insider Trade Details, Insider-Monitor [↩]