Merck Maintains High Dividend Yield

Merck (MRK: 37.16 +0.76%) announced yesterday that its Board of Directors has approved a quarterly dividend of $.38 per share.

Merck’s current dividend yield now stands at 5.1% making it the fourth highest yielding Dow stock. Only AT&T (T: 25.62 +0.08%), Verizon (VZ: 29.73 -0.37%) and DuPont (DD: 35.49 +0.40%) offer higher dividend yields among the 30 Dow stocks.

The quarterly dividend will be payable on October 1, 2009 to shareholders of record as of September 4, 2009.

Merck’s stock finished down 0.5% today to close at $29.87. Since the beginning of 2009, Merck’s shares have fallen less than 2%.

Last week, Merck delivered better than expected second quarter results. The pharmaceutical giant earned $.83 per share in the quarter, while Wall Street was only expecting the company to earn $.77 per share.