Shares of most financial shares were mostly high during Wednesday’s session as the second-quarter earnings of financial and lending companies gets released next week. Most bank stocks rallied as early as last week following the Federal Reserve’s announcement that it has cleared capital return programs for large banks. Thirty-four banks were given an approval for buyback and dividend raise by the central bank after the second phase of the annual stress test.
Most financial stocks along with healthcare and industrial companies rose higher following the Independence holiday during Wednesday’s session. The markets which will be turning to bank earnings reports next week will give them a hint to whether how much money financial and lending companies are loaning and earning. This would mark the beginning of the earnings season.
JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM), Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC), and Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) are amongst the list of financial firms set to deliver their second-quarter earnings report next week. Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) is set to release their earnings report the week after.
Wells Fargo, which will be releasing their earnings report next Friday is expected to deliver earnings of $1.04 compared to the $1.01 earnings per share during the previous quarter.
JPMorgan Chase & Co will also be reporting its quarterly earnings next Friday. The company recently announced that it has taken over United Kingdom company Worldpay Group PLC (LON:WPG). According to Worldpay, JPMorgan and Credit card processor Vantiv have already approached the company in proposition of a bid. This would be JPMorgan’s biggest deal yet since the financial crisis back in 2008. The acquisition would expand JPMorgan’s financial technology department in the midst of the growing popularity of online payment systems to which huge banks have not been able to break through lately.
The company also announced on Wednesday that it has authorized $19.4 billion worth of share buybacks starting July 1 and June 30 next year. JPMorgan also announced that its quarterly dividend would be raised by 6 cents to a total of 56 cents per share beginning the third quarter of the year. This would be the biggest repurchase program among other banks who also announced new buyback programs.
"Given the financial strength of the company and the significant capital and liquidity advancements we have made over the last several years, we are pleased to further increase capital returns to our shareholders while continuing to invest in our businesses for long-term profitability," said JPMorgan Chase chairman and chief executive Jamie Dimon in a statement.
Citigroup also announced that they have increased their quarterly dividend by 32 cents per common share which would total their repurchase program by around $15.6 million.