National Bank of Greece, Earnings Lost in Reverse Split (NBG)

National Bank of Greece SA (NYSE: NBG) currently looks and acts like a different stock or ADR.  The reason is because of its reverse stock split, at 1-for-5, which just took effect this week.  Now shares are up around $2.48, and the adjusted 52-week trading range is $2.15 to $11.85.

NBG has now reported a net loss for its third quarter , due in part to higher provisions against losses and bad debt.  Greece’s economic turmoil played a large part as well.  NBG also will need to raise capital before a coming write-down of the Greek debt.

This is becoming a ghost stock and the split-adjustment may just make for less trading in the stock.  A $2.50 or so price is not exactly expensive for many of the low-priced and penny stock traders, but reverse splits often remove much of the trading volume regardless of the price.  This means that there are now only about 20% as many shares outstanding.