Sunday, July 22, 2012

Top 5 Drug Manufacturers Paying Substantial Dividends

Drug manufacturing is one of the most promising industries within the healthcare sector as there’s always a need for production& development of drugs. Most well-known drug manufacturers offer safe and high returns. We looked for the top five drug manufacturers with substantial dividends, and a maximum P/E ratio of 25. All of the following companies offered a minimum 3.50% dividend yield, and have a minimum market capitalization of $40 billion. Data is derived from finviz. While there are hundreds of drug manufacturers listed on the NYSE, only the following large cap drug manufacturers fit this criteria:

Abbott Laboratories (ABT): The Illionis-based Abbott discovers, develops, manufactures and sells health care products across the globe, operating in four segments. ABT has a market capitalization of $80.1 billion, and a P/E ratio of 17.2, while forward P/E ratio is 10.48. Abbott had an average EPS growth of 6.64% during the last five years. Net profit margin in 2010 was 13.15%, while the company offered a dividend yield of 3.76%. Recent dividend payments of ABT are as follows:

Apr 13, 2011

$0.48

Jan 12, 2011

$0.44

Oct 13, 2010

$0.44

Jul 13, 2010

$0.44

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMY): Formerly known as Bristol- Myers Company, BMY is in the business of discovering, developing and delivering innovative medicines used to help patients suffering from serious diseases. The market cap of Bristol- Myers is $47.46 billion, and P/E ratio is 15.42, while forward P/E ratio is 13.4. BMY’s net profit margin was 23.1%, and last year’s dividend was 4.78%. The company had an annual EPS growth of 4.38% over the last five years. Bristol- Myers's recent dividend payments per share are as follows:

Mar 30, 2011

$0.33

Jan 5, 2011

$0.33

Sep 29, 2010

$0.32

Jun 30, 2010

$0.32

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ): Founded in 1886, New Jersey based JNJ researches, develops, manufactures and sells a variety of health care products all over the world. The market capitalization of JNJ is $164.64 billion, and P/E ratio is 12.6, while forward P/E is 11.72. The company had an average EPS growth of 7.35% over the last five years. With a net profit margin of 21.65%, Johnson& Johnson had a dividend yield of 3.60% last year. Recent dividend history is as follows:

Feb 25, 2011

$0.54

Nov 26, 2010

$0.54

Aug 27, 2010

$0.54

May 27, 2010

$0.54

Eli Lilly& Co. (LLY): LLY engages in the development, manufacture and sale of pharmaceutical products, distributing them through independent wholesale distributors as well as directly to pharmacies. The market cap of LLY is $41.39 billion. Its P/E ratio is 7.80, while forward P/E is 9.74. The company had an EPS growth rate of 20.13% over the past five years. With a dividend yield of 5.48% and a net profit margin of 21.97%, Eli Lilly is more profitable and pays more dividends than JNJ. Recent dividend payments of Eli Lilly per share are as follows:

Feb 11, 2011

$0.49

Nov 10, 2010

$0.49

Aug 11, 2010

$0.49

May 12, 2010

$0.49

Pfizer Inc. (PFE): As a biopharmaceutical company, Pfizer offers prescription medicines for humans and animals over the globe. The company was founded in 1849 and based in New York. PFE has a market capitalization of $164.04 billion, and a P/E ratio of 20.07, while the forward P/E is 8.99. Although Pfizer had an annualized EPS growth of -0.04% over the last five years, the company is expected to have an EPS growth of 2.11% in the next five years. Net profit margin in 2010 was 12.24%, while the company offered a dividend yield of 3.90%. Following are the recent dividend payments of Pfizer:

Feb 2, 2011

$0.20

Nov 4, 2010

$0.18

Aug 4, 2010

$0.18

May 5, 2010

$0.18

Note that almost all companies listed above substantially increased their dividend payments in 2011. That is a healthy sign, indicating the optimistic perspective of the management teams.

Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.

No comments:

Post a Comment