US banks announce 2023 dividend hikes following FED stress tests

Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo and J.P. Morgan all announced their intention to hike the dividend later in 2023 after the latest stess test results by the Federal Reserve (FED).

The dividendhike Twitter account mentioned all the big banks with their indicated dividend increases this week. However it are not official declarations yet, only planned dividend hikes by the big US banks that have to by declared offcially later in 2023. 

Last week many U.S. banks announced dividend hikes following the latest Fed stress tests.
- JPMorgan will hike by 5% to $1.05 quarterly $JPM
- Goldman Sachs will hike by 10% to $2.75 quarterly $GS
- Morgan Stanley will hike by 9.7% to $0.85 quarterly $MS
- Wells Fargo plans a…

— dividend hike (@dividendhike) July 3, 2023

So Wells Fargo announced its plan to hike the dividend by 16.7% to $0.35 quarterly per share and also Citigroup wants to hike its dividend in 2023 with a planned 3.9% increase to $0.53 quarterly per share. For Citigroup this actually is the first dividend hike since 2019.

Later this week also Bank of America announced its intention to increase the dividend in 2023 with a planned 9.1% dividend hike to $0.24 quarterly per share. The U.S. banks are seen as economy-sensitive with the FED stress tests being crucial for capital returns to shareholders through dividends and/or buybacks.

Very few banking stocks have strong dividend track records, with mostly smaller regional banks such as Bank OZK being rare stocks with 25 years of dividend growth.