Staying Pat on the J.P. Morgan Dividend (JPM, C, BAC)

If there is one money-center bank in America which is deemed quality and which can pass stress tests, it is J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM).  We also have it earmarked as a DJIA component which will raise its dividend soon.  That dividend hike is going to have to wait at least one more quarter.

Jamie Dimon and friends just declared that the top bank declared a quarterly dividend of $0.25 per share of common stock.  The dividend is payable on January 31, 2012, to stockholders of record at the close of business on January 6, 2012.

Our take is that the regulator climate is keeping J.P. Morgan from aggressively going after the dividend hike for now.  After all, large peers such as Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) and Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C) are both currently not able to hike their dividends paid out to common stock holders.  That is still the belief at any rate.   hiking its payout.  

J.P. Morgan Chase now claims some $2.3 trillion in assets and operations in more than 60 countries.  The bank is the leader and it trades at a deep discount to both its stated book value and to its tangible book value.  We think the bank will have announced a dividend hike after the first quarter of 2012.  It has paid out $0.25 for three consecutive quarters and this will mark the fourth quarter.  That $1.00 in annualized payments compares to a $4.57 EPS from Thomson Reuters.