24/7 Wall Street is bringing news and analysis in dividends and dividend trends for income oriented investors each day at 11:00 AM EST.  We are now less than two weeks away from getting to see which banks will get regulatory approval to begin returning to a higher dividend payout to shareholders.  Of the money center banks, we expect J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) and Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) to be first and second, and in the super-regionals we see U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB) jacking up the shareholder payouts.  On the custodial side of the equation we are looking for The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (NYSE: BK) and State Street Corp. (NYSE: STT) to be among the first to return to a higher payout.

What is interesting is that you are not currently hamstrung at all in finding real banks with real dividend yields.  After all, what if the government delays its decision?  We recently ran a feature showing the highest yielding banks of all regions and all segments which had a 3.0% yield or higher, a market cap of $1 billion, and then which had earnings power to assure that these steady payout can continue.  If we carve these out by region from our screen of more than fifteen winners, these are five of the top payers by region are M&T Bank Corp. (NYSE: MTB), New York Community Bancorp Inc (NYSE: NYB), Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. (NYSE: CFR), Bank of Hawaii Corporation (NYSE: BOH), and Trustmark Corporation (NASDAQ: TRMK).

M&T Bank Corp. (NYSE: MTB) is based in Buffalo, NY and is the holding company for M&T Bank.  As of a year ago it had 793 banking offices in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia, as well as a branch in George Town, Cayman Islands. The company is in the process of acquiring another.

• Share price of $87.58 compares to 52-week range of $72.03 to $96.15
• Market Cap is $10.5 billion
• Thomson Reuters sees 2011 at $6.12 EPS and $3.77 billion in revenues
• Dividend of $2.80/year generates a yield of 3.2%
• Dividend history during recession was unchanged

New York Community Bancorp Inc (NYSE: NYB) is the bank holding company for York Community Bank and New York Commercial Bank and as of a year ago it had 241 community bank branches and 35 commercial bank branches throughout New York.

• Share price of $17.60 compares to 52-week range of $14.40 to $19.33
• Market Cap is $7.7 billion
• Thomson Reuters sees 2011 at $1.33 EPS and $1.25 billion in revenues
• Dividend of $1.00 per year generates a yield of 5.6%
• Dividend history during recession was unchanged at $0.25 per quarter since 2004.

Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. (NYSE: CFR) operates as Frost Bank and as of a year ago it had 110 financial centers in the Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Rio Grande Valley, and San Antonio regions of Texas.

• Share price of $57.60 compares to 52-week range of $50.04 to $62.59
• Market Cap is $3.5 billion
• Thomson Reuters sees 2011 at $3.52 EPS and $886.4 million in revenues
• Dividend of $1.80/year generates a yield of 3.1%
• Dividend history during recession was stable and was raised throughout the recession.

Bank of Hawaii Corporation (NYSE: BOH) was surprising to see considering the Hawaiian economy of the recession. It is the holding company for Bank of Hawaii and as of a year ago it operated 71 Hawaii branch locations and 12 branches in the Pacific Islands.

• Share price of $46.60 compares to 52-week range of $42.59 to $54.10
• Market Cap is $2.25 billion
• Thomson Reuters sees 2011 at $2.96 EPS and $585.56 million in revenues
• Dividend of $1.80/year generates a yield of 3.8%
• Dividend history during recession was stable and raised during 2008

Trustmark Corporation (NASDAQ: TRMK) is the bank holding company for Trustmark National Bank in Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas and as of a year ago it operated 140 full-service branches and 17 limited-service branches.

• Share price of $22.27 compares to 52-week range of $18.83 to $26.88
• Market Cap is $1.42 billion
• Thomson Reuters sees 2011 at $1.56 EPS and $511.21 million in revenues
• Dividend of $0.92/year generates a yield of about 4.0%
• Dividend history during recession was stable and has been static since 2007

You can bookmark our site for the DAILY DIVIDEND AT 11:00 AM EST each day, although it technically at 11:01 AM EST.

JON C. OGG

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