These two financial stocks just raised their dividends.

In the space of two weeks, two of the most powerful U.S. financial companies raised their shareholder dividends. It wasn't a token hike either; the smaller of the two companies raised its dividend by nearly 10%.

There's nothing better than getting passively rich from one of our investments. Here are the financial giantsJP Morgan Chase (bank) (NYSE: JPM)respond in singingAmerican Express (NYSE: AXP)The latest dividend increase.

1. JPMorgan Chase

JPMorgan Chase is one of the so-called Big Four banks in the United States and is a cornerstone of the US economy. It is also a cornerstone for some income investors and has been in the habit of increasing its dividend for nearly 15 years, with an above-average payout yield.

Prior to announcing its Q1 business results, the bank declared a dividend of $1.15 per share, maintaining its streak of growth, or nearly 10% of dividend growth as mentioned above.

This kind of growth is a sign of management's confidence in its fundamentals both now and in the future, and JPMorgan's executives have reason to believe so. In the first quarter, the company's net income rose 91 TP3T year-over-year, and its net profit rose 61 TP3T year-over-year, thanks to a sharp increase in average loans of 161 TP3T, while deposits rose only 21 TP3T.

In its earnings release, the bank quoted its star chief executive Jamie Dimon as saying that the bank's very strong capital base and "peer-leading rates of return provide us with the ability and flexibility to reinvest for growth while maintaining attractive rates of return on capital without jeopardizing our stronghold balance sheet". balance sheet."

Note his reference to an "attractive capital return profile". We can interpret this to mean that "we will continue to raise the dividend as long as we continue to report this kind of performance". This should be supported by the company's excellent management and the favorable economic situation.

The bank's newly increased dividend will be paid on April 30th to shareholders of record as of April 5th. The new amount yields 2.5% based on the most recent closing price of the stock.

2. American Express

Overtaking JPMorgan in the race for a dividend hike is payment card mainstay American Express, whose board authorized a 17% dividend hike in early March, from a quarterly payout of $0.60 per share to $0.70 per share.

American Express is like a bank in that it is not only a credit card brand and issuer, but it also makes loans to its cardholders and keeps the loans on its books. So we can say it's an active and busy lender, with the advantage that it can gather a lot of information about its borrowers by analyzing a lot of data behind their spending behavior.

With the arrival of 2024, American Express announced its fourth quarter and full year results for 2023. The latter shows net income up 141 TP3T from 2022, which is impressive considering the age and size of the company, and net income up 111 TP3T. Net margins are impressive for what is essentially a lending business: last year's and 2022's net margins were both around 141 TP3T.

The company will soon release its first-quarter numbers, and analysts following the stock are predicting solid results. According to Yahoo! Finance, they expect the company's net income per share to grow by a whopping 351 TP3T and its performance to grow by 211 TP3T.

American Express' increased quarterly dividend will be paid on May 10th to investors of record as of April 5th. While the dividend increase is higher than JPMorgan's in percentage terms, the yield on the new amount is significantly lower: 1.3% based on the share price beforehand.

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JPMorgan Chase is an advertising partner of The Ascent, a Motley Fool company. American Express is an advertising郃 partner of The Ascent, a Motley Fool company. eric Volkman does not hold any of the above shares. the Motley Fool holds a recommendation for JPMorgan Chase. the Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

These Two Financial Stocks Just Raised Their Dividends was originally published by The Motley Fool.