Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) were down Thursday after the bank announced that it was hiking its quarterly divided to 24 cents per share from 22 cents. The increase of roughly 9% puts the bank’s dividend yield at about 3.3%, based on Wednesday’s closing price. The hike comes days after Bank of America said it was discussing with the Federal Reserve differences in the results between the central bank’s stress test and an internal version of the test.
The increased dividend is subject to approval from the company's board. BAC lost 64 cents, or 2.2%, to $28.44 in early Thursday trading.
The lender noted its dialogue with the Federal Reserve to understand differences between the central bank's CCAR results and BAC's Dodd-Frank Act stress test results are ongoing.
The bank said Monday it has begun a dialogue with the Federal Reserve to understand how the lender was evaluated for the central bank's 2023 stress test.
The bank said it "initiated dialogue to understand differences in Other Comprehensive Income over the nine-quarter stress period between the Fed's CCAR results and BofA's Dodd-Frank Act stress test results."
The stress test results showed that BofA was among the lenders that improved the most , Evercore ISI said, and its stress capital buffer dropped by 90 basis points.
BofA screened best in the Dodd-Frank Act Stress Test as it had the biggest increase in stressed pre-provision net revenue, the second lowest loan loss rates of the Big Five Banks, and the third largest AOCI benefit, Evercore ISI said.
