The dividend payout ratio is one of the most important metrics income-seeking investors can use to assess dividend stocks. By measuring the percentage of earnings a company distributes to its shareholders, the payout ratio offers evidence not only about which companies may be paying out an unsustainably large share of earnings, but also about which companies could increase their quarterly distributions the most.
With this in mind, I ran a screen to find the five big bank stocks with the highest dividend payout ratios over the past 12 months: New York Community Bancorp (NYCB 1.87%), BB&T (TFC), Wells Fargo (WFC -0.21%), Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB 0.85%), and U.S. Bancorp (USB 0.40%). Many of these banks won't come as a surprise, as Wells Fargo, BB&T, and U.S. Bancorp have long been known as particularly shareholder-friendly businesses, distributing as much of their earnings as reasonably feasible.
To see exactly where these five bank stocks rank in terms of the dividend payout ratio, simply scroll through the brief slideshow below -- a table with the raw numbers follows it.
18 Big Banks Ranked by Dividend Payout Ratio:
|
Bank |
Dividend Payout Ratio (TTM) |
|---|---|
|
New York Community Bank |
89.60% |
|
BB&T |
39.73% |
|
Wells Fargo |
37.33% |
|
Fifth Third Bancorp |
36.05% |
|
U.S. Bancorp |
34.14% |
|
Regions Financial |
33.27% |
|
JPMorgan Chase |
32.43% |
|
State Street |
32.20% |
|
Huntington Bancshares |
31.37% |
|
PNC Financial Services |
30.54% |
|
Bank of America |
29.27% |
|
Bank of New York Mellon |
28.70% |
|
Morgan Stanley |
27.91% |
|
KeyCorp |
27.80% |
|
SunTrust Banks |
26.09% |
|
Capital One Financial |
20.07% |
|
Goldman Sachs Group |
18.88% |
|
Citigroup |
7.21% |
Data source: YCharts.com.
