Bank of America Hits 52-Week Low; Time for Brian Moynihan to Go?

With Bank of America

touching another 52-week low on Monday of $5.00, it is only a matter of time before the rumors of Brian Moynihan's imminent firing begin surfacing again. The fact of the matter is that Bank of America's (

) stock price has become the focal point for investors. Let's be blunt: The market doesn't care anymore about Brian Moynihan's and BAC's "turnaround plan." That ship, frankly, has sailed. On conference call after conference call, Moynihan has highlighted BAC's business and future in the most optimistic terms possible, yet the stock continues to go lower and lower. At this point, all credibility has been lost. Need proof? How about the fact that Bank of America trades at 25% of its book value? This suggests that investors have zero confidence in the accuracy of the bank's valuation of its assets and are utterly unconvinced that a turnaround will ever take place at BAC. There is simply a massive confidence void surrounding Bank of America. Not even a desperate, $5 billion sweetheart deal with Warren Buffett has been able to stop the bleeding in BAC shares. Unfortunately for shareholders, there has been no accountability. The board of directors appears to be burying their head in the sand - unwilling to shake things up at the top and find a replacement for Moynihan. Granted, he has only been the CEO since January 2010, and most of the bank's current problems can be attributed to former CEO Ken Lewis' mismanagement, but at some point, enough is enough. Bank of America investors are down 62% this year. When Moynihan took over the job at the beginning of 2010, BAC was trading above $16.00 a share. If BAC's current death spiral isn't enough to catalyze a change in leadership, then nothing will. Just as Citigroup's

board has sat idly by as C shares have cratered from a split-adjusted $307.00 in December 2007, when Vikram Pandit became CEO, to their current price of $24.98, BAC's board of directors appears willing to allow shareholders to be totally buried without holding anyone accountable. The bottom line is that Mr. Moynihan has already used up all of his credibility in his short tenure at the top of BAC, and it is time to make a change.