 Bank of America made headlines last month with its plan to return 37 billion to shareholders over the next 12 months, through share repurchases and dividends. Alongside that announcement the financial conglomerate said it would boost its quarterly dividend by 20 to 18 cents per share. The new annualized dividend of 72 cents drives a dividend yield of roughly 2.4, which is well above the current dividend yield of both the SPDR Financial Select ETF and the SP; 500 . 