Is This the Best Big-Bank Dividend Stock?

One of the appeals of bank stocks is that they tend to pay generous and growing dividends. You could even say that it's an inherent aspect of a bank's business model, since most banks can't responsibly reinvest all of their earnings each year.

While banks, as a whole, tend to pay out a larger share of their earnings than other types of companies, not all bank dividend stocks are created equal. There are three variables, in particular, that investors should assess.

Take JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), as an example. If you wanted to know if it's the best big-bank dividend stock, the first thing you would want to check is its dividend yield. This is calculated by dividing a bank's dividend per share by its share price. The higher the yield, the larger the quarterly distribution relative to the price of the stock.

Source: Fool.com