Essentially, there are two ways to keep investors happy. One is share price appreciation, and the other dividend payments. Investors experienced the first with a powerful stock rally in the past year and half. Now, its time for dividends to play a part, writes Rachel Beck of the Associated Press.

When the meltdown occurred, companies pushed the fear button and hoarded cash, now amounting to $940 billion, Beck writes. Now that the economy is on firmer footing companies can let go of some of this pile of money. In the first quarter, 117 companies issued dividends, compared with only 78 a year ago, according to the AP.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM) is one the leading financial services company in the world and competes with Bank of America (BAC), Goldman Sachs (GS), Morgan Stanley (MS), Citigroup (C) and Deutsche Bank (DB). The company has provided $20 billion bridge loan to AT&T (T) in order to help it in its planned purchase of Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile USA unit. It is the largest unsecured loan that a bank has ever made to a client.

We have a price estimate of $48.87 on JPMorgan's stock, which is about 7% above the current market price.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM) is one the largest and most diversified banks in the U.S. and offers services such as retail banking, commercial banking, asset management, investment banking, consumer lending and credit cards. Its main competitors include Bank of America (BAC), Wells Fargo (WFC), Goldman Sachs (GS), Deutsche Bank (DB) and Morgan Stanley (MS).

We have a price estimate of $48.87 for JPMorgan's stock, roughly 5% above the current market price.

Goldman Sachs (GS) was among the first banks to show interest in social networks with its effort to buy into Facebook. It seems the idea is catching. Now, JPMorgan Chase (JPM) began its own fund called the Digital Growth fund, according to the Financial Times.

The fund is in talks to buy 10% of Twitter for $450 million, according to the report. That would value Twitter at $4.5 billion.

JPMorgan (JPM) is one the largest and most diversified bank in the U.S., and offers services such as retail banking, commercial banking, asset management, investment banking, consumer lending and credit cards. Its main competitors include Bank of America (BAC), Wells Fargo (WFC), Goldman Sachs (GS), Deutsche Bank (DB) and Morgan Stanley (MS).

JPMorgan has benefited from a decline in provisions for credit losses that raised operating margins for its retail banking business. However, a weak economic recovery has resulted in a decline in average interest earning deposits and presents a potential concern for the multinational bank.

Capital One (COF) is one of the largest financial institutions in the United States, with banking and non-banking subsidiaries that market a variety of financial products and services. The company specializes in credit cards, home loans, auto loans, banking and saving products. Its main competitors are JPMorgan (JPM), Bank of America (BAC), Citigroup (C) and American Express (AXP).

We have a price estimate of $61.26 for Capital One, well above market price.

JPMorgan (JPM) overall option implied volatility of 26 is below its 26-week average of 32, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

Cisco (CSCO) overall option implied volatility is at 28, according to Track Data, near its 26-week average into its release of Q2 EPS on February 9, suggesting nondirectional price movement.

Options Update is by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

Bank earnings are coming in mixed. A few days ago, JPMorgan Chase (JPM) reported its profit was up 47%. Then, Goldman Sachs (GS) reported earnings were down 52%. And on Wednesday, we got a stellar performance by Morgan Stanley (MS).

The Wall Street Journal reports that Morgan Stanley's profits were up 35% to $867 million, up from $460 million a year ago. Earnings jumped to 41 cents per share from 29 cents per share. Net revenue jumped 14% to $7.81 billion. Analysts at Thomson Reuters had forecast earnings of 35 cents a share on $7.35 billion.

U.S. stock futures are mixed, as investors await several economic reports. Intel (INTC) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) posted upbeat quarterly earnings. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 20 points to 11,663.00, while S&P 500 futures declined 2.20 points to 1,279.10. Nasdaq 100 futures gained 2.25 points to 2,305.00.

U.S. stocks closed lower Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping 0.20%, the Nasdaq Composite declining 0.07% and the S&P 500 losing 0.17%.

Alcoa (AA), Intel (INTC) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) will kick off a new earnings season this week when they report their results for the fourth quarter of 2010. Here's a quick look at what analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect to see, followed by a glance at what's coming up on the economic calendar.

Alcoa

During its fourth quarter, Alcoa saw increased demand in emerging markets, sold surplus properties, and shared revenue targets with investors. Analysts forecast that earnings for the period will come to 19 cents per share, up from just a penny per share in the same quarter of last year. The New York-based aluminum producer also is expected to post revenue of $5.7 billion for the three months that ended in December, which is 4.5% more than a year earlier.