JPMorgan Chase surprised investors late on Monday by slashing its quarterly dividend by 87% to preserve capital. The bank said it had cut the dividend from 38 cents a share to 5 cents to bolster its balance sheet against a potential “highly stressed environment”. The move will save $5bn a year. JPMorgan, which has accepted $25bn in capital from the US government, said it had been “solidly profitable” in the first quarter and had $81bn of tangible common equity on its balance sheet.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 5:21 and is filed under Capital markets. Tagged with jpmorgan. Edit this entry.