Bank of America has been in a frenzy to unload assets and shore up its capital position, in part to undermine the market perception that it faces some sort of shortfall.

Most recently, it agreed to unload about $880 million in commercial mortgages at a roughly 20 to 25 percent discount to face value. That followed a string of sales that included the sale of its stake in HCA back to the company and the sale of a large portion of its stake in CCBC. The HCA sale has raised some concerns that the rush to sell noncore assets can result in deals that are not of optimal value for shareholders.

Barron's quoted a JP Morgan analysts on the deal: "[T]he timing of this exit is very surprising in light of the 44 percent decline in HCA's stock price, especially given that the benefit to capital from the reduction in assets is very small relative to the loss incurred. And the stake was sizable enough that BAC could have used its banking capabilities to be able to sell it at an appropriate time without such a large loss."

Barron's concludes: "Indeed, as Bank of America tells investors on the one hand that everything is fine, it's not hard to detect a hint of desperation in some of its moves. Clearly that's not helping the stock price."

But it's fair to say that the bank has no choice but to unload noncore assets at this point. In defense of the move, one could argue that there's no guarantee the value of the HCA shares would have revived. The hospital business is not exactly in growth mode right now.

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