Query doesnt seem to be sorting on year

OK, here’s my issue. I have a website that has “Recent” as well as “Upcoming” events on a “Company News” page. These events are custom posts and each post has a custom field of Date (date format is mm/dd/yyyy). The code I am using to create the two event types on this page isn’t taking the year (yyyy) into consideration for some reason. Is it obvious to anyone out there as to why this isn’t working? Here is the php content:

<?php
/**
 * Template Name: Events
 */

get_header(); ?>
<?php
  $record_limit = 10;
  $upcoming_count = 1;
	$recent_count = 1;
?>

 	<div id="inner-banner">
                	<!--banner-sub start here-->
				  <?php
                    if (has_post_thumbnail()){
                   ?>
                        <div id="banner-sub">
                   <?php the_post_thumbnail('related-post-thumbnail',array('title' => "")); ?>
                        </div>
                  <?php
                    }
                   else{
                   ?>
                     <div id="banner-sub">
                     <img src="<?php echo get_bloginfo('template_url')?>/images/inner-banner.jpg" alt="inner banner" title="inner banner" border="0"/>
                    </div>
                   <?php
                    }
                   ?>
					<!--banner-sub end here-->
                </div>
        <!--banner end here-->   

        <div id="center_content_wrapper">
        <div class="breadcrumbs">
				<?php if(function_exists('bcn_display'))
                {
                    bcn_display();
                }?>
            </div>
        		<?php the_post(); ?>

				<?php get_template_part( 'content', 'page' ); ?>	

                <!--company news-->
        		<div id="company_news_wrapper">
                 <h2>Company News</h2>
				 <?php
		  	  // The Query
				$paged = (get_query_var('paged')) ? get_query_var('paged') : 1;
				  $args=array(
         			'post_type' => 'companynews', 'posts_per_page' => 10,
         			'paged' => $paged
        			 );
				query_posts($args);

				// The Loop
				while ( have_posts() ) : the_post();
				/**********LOOP CONTENT STARTS HERE***/

				?>
                	<div class="news_area">
						<div class="news_date"><?php  $arrDate = get_post_custom_values("Date", $post->ID); echo $date = $arrDate [0]; ?></div>
                    	<div class="news_heading"><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"  rel="bookmark"><?php the_title(); ?></a></div>
                    </div>

                  <?php

				/**********LOOP CONTENT ENDS HERE***/
				endwhile;

				// Reset Query

				?>
             </div>
         <?php wp_reset_query();?>

                  <!--upcoming news-->
                <div id="upcoming_news_wrapper">
                <h2>Upcoming Events</h2>
				 <?php
		  	  // The Query
				$paged = (get_query_var('paged')) ? get_query_var('paged') : 1;
				  $args = array(
         			'post_type' => 'events', 'posts_per_page' => 11,
         			'paged' => $paged,
							'meta_key' => 'date',
						  'meta_compare' => '>=',
						  'meta_value' => date("m/d/Y"),
						  'orderby' => 'meta_value',
						  'order' => 'DESC'
        			 );

				$upcoming_records = query_posts($args);			

				// The Loop
				while ( have_posts() && $upcoming_count <= 10) : the_post();
				/**********LOOP CONTENT STARTS HERE***/

				?>
                	<div class="news_area">
						<div class="news_date"><?php  $arrDate = get_post_custom_values("Date", $post->ID); echo $date = $arrDate [0]; ?></div>
                    	<div class="news_heading"><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"  rel="bookmark"><?php the_title(); ?></a></div>
                    </div>

                  <?php
										$upcoming_count++;
				/**********LOOP CONTENT ENDS HERE***/
				endwhile;

				// Reset Query

				?>
				<?php if (count($upcoming_records) > $record_limit ): ?>
					<div class="news_area">
						<div class="news_date">
							<a href="<?php print get_bloginfo('url'); ?>/allevents?type=upcoming" rel="bookmark" style="text-decoration: none;"><strong>Read More...</strong></a>
						</div>
          </div>
				<?php endif; ?>
             </div>
                 <?php wp_reset_query(); ?>

        		<!--past news-->
        		<div id="news_wrapper">
                 <h2>Recent Events</h2>
				 <?php
		  	  // The Query
				$paged = (get_query_var('paged')) ? get_query_var('paged') : 1;
				  $args=array(
         			'post_type' => 'events', 'posts_per_page' => 11,
         			'paged' => $paged,
							'meta_key' => 'date',
						  'meta_compare' => '<=',
						  'meta_value' => date("m/d/Y"),
						  'orderby' => 'meta_value',
						  'order' => 'DESC'
        			 );
				$recent_records = query_posts($args);

				// The Loop
				while ( have_posts() && $recent_count <= 10) : the_post();
				/**********LOOP CONTENT STARTS HERE***/

				?>
                	<div class="news_area">
						<div class="news_date"><?php  $arrDate = get_post_custom_values("Date", $post->ID); echo $date = $arrDate [0]; ?></div>
                    	<div class="news_heading"><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" rel="bookmark"><?php the_title(); ?></a></div>
                    </div>

                  <?php $recent_count++;

				/**********LOOP CONTENT ENDS HERE***/
				endwhile;

				// Reset Query

				?>
				<?php if (count($recent_records) > $record_limit): ?>
					<div class="news_area">
						<div class="news_date">
							<a href="<?php print get_bloginfo('url'); ?>/allevents?type=recent" rel="bookmark" style="text-decoration: none;"><strong>Read More...</strong></a>
						</div>
          </div>
				<?php endif; ?>
             </div>
                 <?php wp_reset_query(); ?>

                <?php if ( ! dynamic_sidebar( 'Presskit ' ) ) : ?>
   				 <?php endif;?> 

		</div>

<?php get_footer(); ?>