These leading financials passed the Stress Test

Article Excerpt

The four financials below (including American Express— see next article) have passed the U.S. Federal Reserve’s latest “stress test.” It measures how such firms would cope with a jump in unemployment, falling stock prices and other unfavourable conditions. As a result of their success, all four companies raised their dividends and announced new share buyback plans. J.P. MORGAN CHASE & CO. $92 (New York symbol JPM; Income Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 3.6 billion; Market cap: $331.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.5; Dividend yield: 2.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.jpmorganchase.com) is the largest banking firm in the U.S. It has total assets of $2.6 trillion as of June 30, 2017. Morgan is increasing its quarterly dividend by 12.0%. Starting with the October 2017 payment, investors will receive $0.56 a share, up from $0.50. The new annual rate of $2.24 yields 2.4%. In addition, the bank plans to buy back up to $19.4 billion of its common shares by June 30, 2018. That’s equal to 6% of…