Updating your Conservative-Growth Payers: J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

Article Excerpt

J.P. MORGAN CHASE & CO. $251 is a buy. The bank (New York symbol JPM; Conservative-Growth Payer Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 2.8 billion; Market cap: $702.8 billion; Dividend yield: 2.2%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Above Average; www.jpmorganchase.com) is the largest banking firm in the U.S., with total assets of $4.00 trillion as of December 31, 2024. With the April 2025 payment, Morgan will raise your quarterly dividend by 12.0%, to $1.40 a share from $1.25. The new annual rate of $5.60 yields 2.2%. The bank also repurchased $18.84 billion of its shares in 2024. In the three months ended December 31, 2024, Morgan’s earnings soared 54.1%, to $13.67 billion from $8.87 billion a year earlier. Due to fewer shares outstanding, per-share earnings rose at a faster rate of 58.2%, to $4.11 from $3.04. The big earnings gain is partly because the year-earlier quarter included a $2.9 billion payment to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to replenish losses for a fund that helps the uninsured depositors…