US Banks Boost Dividends, Announce Buybacks Following Stress Test Results

Following a sharp move higher heading into the last hour of trade Tuesday afternoon as JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) unveiled its capital plan for 2012, the financial sector is moving modestly lower in the after-hours session amid results of the Fed's latest banking stress tests.

The results showed 15 of 19 major US banks had adequate capital levels under the Fed's scenarios. Citigroup (NYSE: C), MetLife (NYSE: MET), SunTrust (NYSE: STI) and Ally Financial were the four banks which did not pass the tests.

Banks are issuing their own updates following the official release from the Fed:

• JPMorgan - quarter dividend raised by 20 percent to 30 cents per share, announced $15 billion buyback.
  
  
• US Bancorp (NYSE: USB) - quarter dividend raised by 56 percent to 19.5 cents per share, 100 million share buyback.
  
  
• BB&T (NYSE: BBT) - quarter dividend raised by 25 percent to 20 cents per share.
  
  
• Keycorp (NYSE: KEY) - considering dividend raise from 3 cents to 5 cents per share, $344 million buyback.
  
  
• AmEx (NYSE: AXP) - quarter dividend raised from 18 cents to 20 cents per share, announced $4 billion buyback program.
  
  
• BNY Mellon (NYSE: BK) - to maintain a quarterly dividend of 13 cents per share, announced a $1.16 billion buyback plan.
  
  
• Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) - boosted quarter dividend by 83 percent to 22 cents per share.
  
  
• Discover (NYSE: DFS) - to maintain 10 cents per share quarterly dividend, authorized $2 billion buyback.
  
  
• Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) - Fed did not object to the bank's proposed capital plan which included a buyback plan and increased dividend. No other details were offered.
  
  
• PNC (NYSE: PNC) - also announced the Fed did not object to a dividend raise and buyback, however the bank did not give details of either distribution.

After closing Tuesday's session at $15.41, the Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSE: XLF) is now down modestly to $15.37 in after-hours trading.

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