With recessionary pressures on the horizon, investors need a port in the storm. And you can’t get much safer than the health care sector. Thanks to its recession-resistant nature, health care remains a top pick for investors looking for safety, and our latest Best Health Care Dividend Stocks List pick has been providing that safety for over five decades straight, through a variety of economic environments.
In the search for the Best Health Care Dividend Stocks, 16 factors are scored across Health Care sector dividend stocks and only the best combination of attractive yield, dividend safety, returns potential and low returns risk receive a Buy rating. Our process is systematic, goal focused and designed for moderate risk investors with a long-term horizon seeking allocation to Health Care.
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The secret to our pick’s success lies in its huge size and diversification. Covering drug development, medical devices as well as consumer healthcare products, our pick benefits from a variety of macroeconomic and health care trends. An aging population coupled with rising medical innovation continues to boost sales and strengthen our pick’s cash flow. At the same time, its huge size allows it to spend heavily on M&A and R&D, boosting its future potential. Investors have continued to benefit too, with our pick being a member of the elite Dividend Kings and long supported share buybacks and distributed dividends from its profits.
This well-covered mega-cap Biotech/Pharma stock is yielding a modest 2.67% with a $4.520/shr forward dividend that is paid quarterly. Their $443.8B market cap ranks 1st out of 17 dividend stocks in the Biotech/Pharma industry, and they have $32.0B in debt and $34.1B in cash.
Currently, our pick has support from both the sell-side and buy-side. Analysts are Overweight-rated on average with expectations for eps to grow a modest 4% next year. Relative to the 52-week highs, the stock is outperforming the S&P 500 at -9% vs -16% and is an average performing Biotech/Pharma dividend stocks, which are -11% as a group.
Year-to-date, the stock has returned -4% vs 4% for the S&P 500 and -4% for the Biotech/Pharma industry.
