Hmm. yahoo says IPO was in 1986 and has no prior data... So, there must be an error at google... I think both use adjusted data when charting. In Yahoo's historical data there is an additional column named "adjusted price". It is IMO very useful for performance calculations like was done in this thread.
If you bought BAC in IPO in 1986 and held, the annualized gain is 5.44% and $10,000 has grown to $48,500. In the same period, the annualized return of a more conservative stock such as JNJ is 14.8% and $10,000 grew to $626,000 In a more conservative stock like PG, the returned would have been 12.8% with $10,000 growing to $370,000 Let me summarize for you: BAC investors got the short end.
I did NOT mean to suggest or recommend BAC. The article on the BAC (in the OP) was randomly clicked during my surfing. Furthermore, many bank stock has been bankrupted historically, such as the biggest "Bank of United States" at the time of 1930. Roughly 2000 banks have bankrupted during the Great Depression. I saw their failures when I was a child.