The Return Of Financial Dividends

The financial crisis of 2007-2009 was particularly painful to investors with an allocation to dividend rich financials. Not only did share prices collapse, but the dividend payments were slashed or eliminated as many financial institutions received funds from TARP. The big news Friday was that the federal government gave its blessing to several large institutions to finally raise distributions to shareholders. The institutions include US Bancorp (USB), Wells Fargo (WFC), JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and State Street (STT). US Bancorp (USB) raised its quarterly distribution from 5 to 12.50 cents/share. This is still below the 42.50 cents/share payment that the bank was paying before the dividend cut. Yield: 1.80% Wells Fargo (WFC) raised its quarterly dividend from 5 to 12 cents/share. The company paid 34 cents/share before joining the crowd of dividend cutters in March 2009. Yield: 1.50% State Street (STT) raised its quarterly dividend from 1 to 18 cents/share. I sold my position in the stock right after the dividend cut in 2009. In retrospect I could have held on to it, but given the fact that most dividend cutters in 2007 and 2008 ended up going bankrupt this was not an unreasonable decision. Yield: 1.60% JPMorgan Chase (JPM) raised its quarterly dividend from 5 to 25 cents/share. Back in February 2009 the company cut its dividend from 34 cents/share to 5 cents/share. Yield: 2.20% The future of financial dividends is still unclear, as it would be largely dependent on the growth in earnings in the current environment. I would definitely wait to see where distributions go from here.... Read more