Joining the likes of other larger financial institutions and banks, mortgage giant Washington Mutual Inc. (NYSE: WM) joined the billion-dollar loss club. The company's quarterly results reflected a $3.33 billion loss, bringing its total loss reserve to $8 billion due to bad loans in its portfolio.Similar to what kindergarteners face, the mortgage industry's "monkey see, monkey do" attitude just keeps the billion-dollar losses coming quarter after quarter. WaMu did say that it would be trimming up to $1 billion in costs by the end of next year. Ah, how nice! If you're a WaMu shareholder, does that statement give you any comfort? Probably not.
To go from an $830 million profit in 2007 to a $3.3 billion loss in 2008 is unspeakable, but it's almost the norm these days with mortgage-involved entities floating at the top of the fishbowl. Even though WaMu reflected a capital raise in April in its loss, the company still lost $3.34 per share even at that. Writeoffs totaled $2.17 billion and the company changed the time period from three years down to a year in which to evaluate defaults in its prime mortgage portfolio. As of this morning, WM shares are down over 20% from before Tuesday's report, and down over 57% for this year as well.
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