The Investments Blog: Wells Fargo, JP Morgan, & U.S. Bancorp Increase Dividends

Friday, March 18, 2011

Wells Fargo, JP Morgan, & U.S. Bancorp Increase Dividends

Wells Fargo (WFC), J.P. Morgan (JPM), and U.S. Bancorp (USB) announced dividend increases and share repurchases today.

Here's a quick summary with excerpts from each bank's press release:

Wells Fargo - Approximate Yield 1.5%
Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC - News) today announced a special first quarter 2011 cash dividend on its common stock of $0.07 per share, which together with the $0.05 per share dividend declared on January 25, 2011, brings the total dividend declared for the first quarter to $0.12 per share. The special dividend is payable March 31, 2011, to stockholders of record on March 28, 2011.

The Board of Directors also increased the Company's authority to repurchase common stock by an additional 200 million shares. The quarterly dividend rate increase to $0.12 per share was part of the capital plan the Company submitted to the Federal Reserve Board in January 2011.

JP Morgan - Approximate Yield 2.2%
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM - News) today announced the following actions taken by its Board of Directors:

Declared a quarterly dividend of $0.25 per share on the corporation’s common stock, an increase of $0.20 per share. The dividend is payable on April 30, 2011 to stockholders of record at the close of business on April 6, 2011.
Authorized a new $15 billion multi-year common stock repurchase program, of which up to $8.0 billion of common stock repurchases is approved for 2011.

U.S. Bancorp - Approximate Yield 1.8%
The board of directors of U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB - News) has approved a 150 percent increase in the dividend rate on U.S. Bancorp common stock to $0.50 on an annualized basis, or $0.125 on a quarterly basis. The quarterly common stock dividend of $0.125 per common share is payable on April 15, 2011, to shareholders of record at the close of business on March 31, 2011.

Additionally, the board of directors of U.S. Bancorp today approved an authorization to repurchase up to 50 million shares of its outstanding common stock.

These relatively stronger banks are now in a position to begin paying dividends. Some others still have some mending to do.

Adam

Long position in WFC, JPM, and USB
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Origin of Newton's 4th Law?

"Long ago, Sir Isaac Newton gave us three laws of motion, which were the work of genius. But Sir Isaac's talents didn't extend to investing: He lost a bundle in the South Sea Bubble, explaining later, 'I can calculate the movement of the stars, but not the madness of men.' If he had not been traumatized by this loss, Sir Isaac might well have gone on to discover the Fourth Law of Motion: For investors as a whole, returns decrease as motion increases." - Warren Buffett

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A temperamental market pretty much assures it.

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Notable Quote

"Warren and I have not made our way in life by making successful macroeconomic predictions and betting on our conclusions.

Our system is to swim as competently as we can and sometimes the tide will be with us and sometimes it will be against us. But by and large we don't much bother with trying to predict the tides because we plan to play the game for a long time.

I recommend to all of you exactly the same attitude.

It's kind of a snare and a delusion to outguess macroeconomic cycles... ...very few people do it successfully and some of them do it by accident. When the game is that tough, why not adopt the other system of swimming as competently as you can and figuring that over a long life you'll have your share of good tides and bad tides?" - Charlie Munger

The Investments Blog

Friday, March 18, 2011

Wells Fargo, JP Morgan, & U.S. Bancorp Increase Dividends

Origin of Newton's 4th Law?

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