Jim Trippon CPA

In his annual letter to shareholders, JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon said the bank, the second-largest in the U.S. would like to raise its dividend to 75 cents to $1 a share from the current level of 20 cents a share. Sure, that's good news, but that doesn't take the dividend back to the $1.52 a share the bank was paying prior to the financial crisis, but we've been here before regarding a JPMorgan dividend increase.

The bank is widely viewed as the strongest of the major U.S. banks, a view we would not contest, but it should be noted that Dimon mentioned a dividend increase in December and February and here we are in April and the bank is still paying a paltry 20 cents a share.

Timing appears to be an issue, but that is a familiar excuse. Dimon wants to see several months of job growth (we haven't seen one) and reduced losses on consumer loans.

Fair enough, but what this really means is we shouldn't expect a dividend increase out of JPMorgan until the second half of this year. Picking a date is a hard game, if not a fool's bet.

Morgan Stanley expects the dividend hike to come in the current quarter. Goldman Sachs expects in the third quarter. The bottom line is would be encouraging to see JPMorgan just go ahead get the dividend increase over with rather than speaking about it in ambiguous terms and not doing anything.