Marshall & Ilsley: Pump Up the Volume

MILWAUKEE (TheStreet) -- Marshall & Ilsley (MI Quote) shares tumbled Tuesday on above-average volume after the regional bank posted a third-quarter loss and announced plans for a common stock offering.

Marshall & Ilsley said it lost $248 million, or 68 cents a share, in the third quarter, widening from its year-ago loss but in line with the Thomson Reuters average estimate. The bank also said it has commenced a public offering of $775 million of its common stock for sale to the public.

Shares of Marshall & Ilsley were falling by 82 cents, or 11.4%, to $6.36. Earlier in the session, the stock touched an intraday low of $6.29. More than 5.9 million shares changed hands by 11 a.m. EDT Friday, compared to the stock's three-month average daily volume of 8.3 million, according to the Nasdaq.

Marshall & Ilsley has a 364.6 million-share float with a short interest float of 3.7% as of Sept. 25, according to Yahoo! Finance. Only 1% of the company's shares are held by insiders with another 65.2% owned by institutions.

Investors posting on Internet message board lamented what they called "massive dilution," while other bullish investors argued that the stock is very oversold and now offers a "bargain price" for M&I shares.

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-- Written by Robert Holmes in New York.