Wells Fargo Raises Dividend By 14%

After the close, Wells Fargo ($WFC) announced that it’s raising its quarterly dividend from 22 cents to 25 cents per share. The bank will now pay out $1 for the whole year. Going by today’s close, that’s a yield of 2.85%.

Wells Fargo & Company (WFC) today announced a quarterly common stock dividend of $.25 per share, an increase of three cents, or 14 percent, per share from the prior quarter. The dividend is payable March 1, 2013, to stockholders of record on February 1, 2013, as approved today by the Wells Fargo board of directors. Wells Fargo has approximately 5.3 billion shares outstanding.

This dividend increase for the first quarter of 2013 was part of the company’s 2012 Capital Plan that the Federal Reserve did not object to in March, 2012. Wells Fargo submitted its 2013 Capital Plan on January 4, 2013, and it is currently under review by the Federal Reserve.

“The dividend increase approved by our board today was included in our 2012 Capital Plan and reflected the confidence we have in our company’s performance,” Chairman and CEO John Stumpf said. “We remain committed to returning more capital to our shareholders. We requested an increase in capital distributions in our 2013 Capital Plan as compared to our 2012 plan, subject to review and non-objection by the Federal Reserve Board.”

The Fed still needs to sign off on these dividend increases for many banks. Wells will have no trouble covering this dividend. If the earnings projections for this year are correct, Wells is passing on just 27% of its profits in the form of dividends.

Posted by on January 22nd, 2013 at 4:26 pm


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