The 5 Highest-Yielding Regional Bank Stocks

If you're on the hunt for a high-yielding regional bank stock, then you should take a good, hard look at:

  • Huntington Bancshares
  • Regions Financial
  • Fifth Third Bancorp
  • BB&T
  • New York Community Bancorp

The dividend yields on each of these five bank stocks is higher than any other major regional bank, coming in at between 2.52% and 5.28%, based on data from Yahoo! Finance. To put that in perspective, the current yield on the S&P 500 is only 2.11%, or lower than all five of these regional banks.

What's even more encouraging about these bank stocks is that many of their dividends are still likely to grow. I'm referring specifically to Huntington Bancshares, Regions Financial, and Fifth Third Bancorp, all of which slashed their quarterly payouts at the nadir of the financial crisis and have since been trying to work their way back to their pre-crisis payouts.

NOTE: BB&T's data is not included above, as it was not available from YCharts.com.

The story with New York Community Bancorp is a bit different. Its strong position going into the crisis, as well as its rock-solid loan portfolio, allowed it to continue paying its $0.25 per share both during and after the crisis. Consequently, there's less opportunity for its payout to grow to the same extent as the others.

Either way, these five regional bank stocks are a great place for dividend investors to start their search for high-yielding investment options. To see where each of these banks ranks among the top five, scroll through the brief slideshow that follows.

All data for Huntington Bancshares, Regions Financial, Fifth Third Bancorp, BB&T, and New York Community Bancorp sourced from Yahoo! Finance.

The article The 5 Highest-Yielding Regional Bank Stocks originally appeared on Fool.com.

John Maxfield has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2015 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.