Wells Fargo is looking to return almost $33 billion in cash to shareholders over the next twelve months – a record for any U.S. bank, and slightly better than the $31.5 billion capital return plan posted by its larger peer JPMorgan after the Fed released results for the annual stress test for banks late last week. Wells Fargo will hike its quarterly dividends from the current level of 39 cents a share to 43 cents a share, which works out to total dividends of ~$8.3 billion assuming average outstanding shares of 4.85 billion. Taken together with the new $22 billion share buyback program, this equals the record $32.8 billion payout. Notably, this represents a 73% jump compared to the bank’s plan to return $19 billion last year. READ MORE