Comerica Inc.’s decision to double its dividend may signal that U.S. regulators will allow more of the biggest lenders to begin restoring their payouts.
Comerica, the Dallas-based bank that posted annual profits throughout the financial crisis, boosted its quarterly dividend to 10 cents a share yesterday. Comerica also authorized the repurchase of as much as 7 percent of stock outstanding, according to a company statement. Banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co., U.S. Bancorp and PNC Financial Service Group Inc. may be next, said Jennifer Thompson, an analyst at New York-based Portales Partners LLC.
Interesting. I was expecting banks to get approval as they show that they are well capitalized and will be able to meet proposed regulatory standards, but it might be coming sooner than I had expected. Would expect some multiple expansion on the back of dividend chasers.
Disclosure: long C, BAC common and preferred and RF (yeah, sucks) equity as well as European bank deep value plays.
This is my effort to help fit the pieces together to get a better picture of the capital markets.
“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
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