Merck Maintains High Dividend Yield
- May 28, 2009
- Dividend Aristocrats, Dividend News, Dividend Stocks, High Yield Dividend Stocks, Top Dividend Stocks
- Add a comment
Pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. (MRK: 38.15 -0.70%) announced today that they are maintaining their quarterly dividend payment of $.38 per share.
Merck’s current dividend yield now stands at 5.7%. Within the Dow Jones index, Merck now offers the fourth highest dividend yield among the 30 Dow component stocks. Only AT&T (T: 29.99 -0.10%), Verizon (VZ: 37.92 0.00%) and DuPont (DD: 52.06 +0.79%) offer higher dividend yields.
The dividend will be payable on July 1, 2009 to shareholders of record as of June 8, 2009.
Since the beginning of the year, Merck’s shares have fallen over 12% after dropping almost 48% in 2008.
While Merck’s falling stock price has produced a very high dividend yield, there doesn’t appear to be any reason for the company to reduce their dividend payment in the near term. Wall Street analysts expect MRK to earn $3.21 per share this year, while their current annual dividend payout is only $1.52 per share. That results in a dividend payout ratio of less than 50%.
