Ten Big Pharma Stocks’ Juicy Dividend Payouts, With Cash-on-Hand as Cushion

Pharmaceutical makers’ shares have mostly been going nowhere fast, held back by a lack of new block buster drugs.

Pfizer Stock Chart by YCharts

GlaxoSmithKline Stock Chart by YCharts

Collecting the cash from old block busters allows the group to pay generous dividends, however, and the poor stock-price performance has lifted yields above 3% for the entire group—Pfizer (PFE), Eli Lilly (LLY), Merck (MRK), Novartis (NVS), Abbott (ABT), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Sanofi (SNY), AstraZeneca (AZN) and Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY).

Pfizer Dividend Yield Chart by YCharts

GlaxoSmithKline Dividend Yield Chart by YCharts

Tracking dividend coverage by current earnings is important:

Pfizer Dividend Chart by YCharts

Far more difficult is discerning the value of the companies’ R&D pipelines. Until FDA approval is granted, it’s still a speculative asset. So, all the more important to look at liquidity in the near- and medium-term:

Pfizer Cash and ST Investments Chart by YCharts

GlaxoSmithKline Cash and ST Investments Chart by YCharts