Bank of America: Dividends aren't guaranteed

— -- A: There are only a few things investors see as their right. One of those is high and rising dividends from large banks.

Many of the banks, including Bank of America, are part of an exclusive and respected group called the Standard & Poor's Dividend Aristocrats. These are big companies in the S&P 500 index that have increased their dividends to common share holders for at least the past 25 years.

You can see Bank of America's history of raising its dividend here since 1993.

It was the collapse in Bank of America's share price that drove the yield up to levels that started looking suspiciously high, near 12%. But since mid-July, as the stock price rallied almost 80%, the dividend yield has come down toward 7.5%.

I don't have any inside information on Bank of America's plan regarding its dividend. But on July 23, the company declared it's regular quarterly dividend would be unchanged at 64 cents a share.

That ends a long streak of increasing dividends, which is difficult to maintain. And it could be an early warning that the dividend at current levels is in jeopardy. That's about the best indication you'll get using publicly available information.