While WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange continues to maintain that he has documented misbehaviour by executives of Bank of America - that he'll disclose in January - Rochdale Securities's Dick Bove isn't buying it and thinks a more apt song for Mr. Assange to is "Ain't Misbehavin'."

"It may just be the case here that the sound is greater than the fury. It is highly questionable that Mr. Assange has new information about Bank of America."  -- Dick Bove.

While it might appear that Mr. Bove is influenced by his “buy” rating on BofA shares and his target price of $19.25, which would be a 44% gain from current levels, he thinks that the worst case scenario would be the introduction of internal memos that could show BofA knew it was creating toxic securities for investors buying into the subprime mortgage market.

  The collapse of loans to less-than-desirable borrowers capsized high-yielding securities packaged to investors, an event that in turn crushed some of Wall Street’s biggest names including Merrill Lynch and Countrywide Financial, which BofA ultimately absorbed.

Addressing other possible areas of attack, Bove said information on departed management no longer would be relevant and CEO Brian Moynihan hasn’t been around long enough to attract any dirt.  Should any such leaks contain information about BofA customers – a la the State Department leaks – Bove reasons that would backfire on Wikileaks by exposing Assange to confidentiality lawsuit claims.  And underwriting lapses essentially would amount to picking at scabs as “the bank is paying tends of billions already for lapses in its underwriting standards."

An informal poll among investors would indicate that the market agrees with Mr. Bove's position - BofA shares are up nearly 22% since 11/30/10, and it's easily outperforming its peers.   [CNBC.com, 12/22]