JPMorgan vs. Bank of America: $1,000 each with dividends reinvested for 30 years

Imagine putting $1,000 into each of two big U.S. banks at the close of October 9, 1996, and reinvesting every dividend in more shares. Thirty years later, at the close of October 9, 2026, the JPMorgan Chase stake would be worth about $28,524 and the Bank of America stake about $5,272. The S&P 500, through the SPY fund with dividends reinvested, would have turned $1,000 into about $18,714 over the same period — so one bank beat the index by a wide margin and the other trailed it.

The names were different in 1996. The JPMorgan Chase series before 2001 is that of Chase Manhattan Corp, the same SEC registrant, which took the J P Morgan Chase name in its filings from February 2001. The Bank of America series before 1998 is that of NationsBank Corp, which became BankAmerica Corp in October 1998 and later Bank of America Corp. Prices and dividends for 1996–1997 were checked against those companies’ annual reports.

Twelve years in which Bank of America led

For most of the first decade, the two stakes moved together, and Bank of America was ahead. It took the lead in September 2001 and kept it for 81 months in a row, until May 2008 — 98 of the 361 month-ends in total. At their pre-crisis peaks, with dividends reinvested, the Bank of America stake reached $3,503 (November 2006) and the JPMorgan stake $2,724 (April 2007).

The crisis and the cuts

At the bottom in February 2009, the reinvested JPMorgan stake was worth $1,273, 53.3% below its peak; the Bank of America stake was worth $291, down 91.7%. Both banks cut their dividends:

The language of the announcements tells part of the story. Bank of America’s chief executive said in October 2008, “We know many investors in our stock are quite disappointed with a dividend reduction,” and in January 2009 the board cited “continuing severe economic and financial market conditions.” JPMorgan described its cut as “a Precautionary Step to Maximize Capital and Operational Flexibility.”

How long each stayed on the floor

JPMorgan paid $0.05 a share for eight quarters and raised the dividend to $0.25 in March 2011. Bank of America paid $0.01 a share for 22 quarters, from March 2009 to June 2014. In March 2014 it announced an increase to $0.05 after the Federal Reserve’s stress test; in April it suspended that increase at the Fed’s request; and in August 2014 the increase finally went through — “the first increase in Bank of America’s quarterly common stock dividend in seven years,” as the company put it.

The dividend today, per share

In 2026 JPMorgan announced a quarterly dividend of $1.65 a share from the third quarter, up from $1.50; Bank of America raised its quarterly dividend to $0.32 from $0.28 in July. Per share, JPMorgan’s 2025 dividend was 3.85 times its 2007 level; Bank of America’s was 0.45 times — still less than before the crisis. That is a per-share comparison; it says nothing about how much each bank pays in total.

For the original $1,000 investor who kept the cash instead of reinvesting, the difference is plain: JPMorgan paid $53.66 in 2007 and $206.83 in 2025, while Bank of America paid $108.63 in 2007 and $48.88 in 2025.

Reinvesting mattered more for the winner

Reinvesting nearly doubled the JPMorgan result (1.93 times the cash-kept total) and added 44% to Bank of America’s. Since September 2008, the JPMorgan line has been ahead at every month-end, and it finished 5.41 times the Bank of America line.

What not to conclude

It would be wrong to say Bank of America “never recovered.” Its reinvested line has been above $1,000 since March 2016 and is above its 2006 peak today. What is true is narrower: the share price only closed above its November 16, 2006 record of $54.90 on December 12, 2025, nineteen years later, and at $54.32 on October 9, 2026 it was below that record again. The filings used here do not explain the difference between the two banks’ paths through the crisis, so this comparison does not try to.

Method: no taxes or trading costs, fractional shares allowed, dividends reinvested at the close of the ex-dividend date, and cash kept aside earns nothing. The SPY result is net of the fund’s fee. Current dividend yields at the October 9 close: JPMorgan 1.98%, Bank of America 2.36%. The JPMorgan and Bank of America pages show each bank’s full dividend history, and the dividends page ranks U.S. companies by consecutive years of increases. Not investment advice.