The recent run-up in the market would make it easy to justify selling any stock these days. Yet, while panic never helps investors, it's still a good idea to play devil's advocate with investments.
Consider Greek financial firm National Bank of Greece (NYSE: NBG ) . Though many think the stock has been unfairly punished by European debt concerns, you'll find a few of the 1,155 Motley Fool CAPS members weighing in on the company still offering reasons to be bearish.
Here at the Motley Fool, we like to consider both the good and bad sides of an investment, so in this article, I'm highlighting three of the main bearish arguments on National Bank of Greece today. Be sure to read the bullish side as well, and then weigh in with your own comments below or rate National Bank of Greece in CAPS.
1. Eurozone woes
In addition to troubles in National Bank of Greece's home country, investors fear that issues in others like Portugal and Spain could compound the problem, leading to increased risk among other banks with large exposure to the region such as ING (NYSE: ING ) , with 15 billion euros exposure to the eurozone, and Banco Santander (NYSE: STD ) , with 24 billion euros exposure to Spain, alone. As such, some CAPS members prefer to avoid European bank stocks altogether.
2. Only $1 trillion?
While Citigroup's (NYSE: C ) and AIG's (NYSE: AIG ) bailouts have so far helped steer them back in the right direction, some investors think the EU rescue package won't solve Europe's problems. Economists expect Greece to fall further into recession this year and Deutsche Bank's (NYSE: DB ) CEO, which helped assemble a private-sector Greek bailout, has doubts about Greece's ability to repay its debt and the potential effects on European banks.
3. Earnings pressure
While banks in the U.S. have shown improvements recently, with JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM ) posting a 55% jump in first-quarter profit and improving credit quality, National Bank of Greece has moved in the opposite direction with 2009 earnings plummeting 40%. The bank expects a difficult 2010 as well and the macroeconomic pressure on its ability to generate earnings recently landed it and other Greek banks Moody's downgrades.
To see details of what CAPS members are saying now about National Bank of Greece, just click on over to Motley Fool CAPS and have a look -- or add your own thoughts directly to this story in the comments box below.
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