The healthcare sector has a higher prevalence of companies with sustainable competitive advantages compared to other sectors which implies it may continue generating above-average financial returns. When the economy is struggling and cyclical companies begin showing signs of weakness, investors often try to put their money into defensive companies in an effort to protect their portfolio during a downturn. If you’re a long term investor, these high-dividend healthcare stocks can boost your monthly portfolio income.
National HealthCare Corporation (AMEX:NHC)
NHC has a decent dividend yield of 2.93% and the company has a payout ratio of 58.09% . In the last 10 years, shareholders would have been happy to see the company increase its dividend from $0.84 to $1.92. They have been reliable as well, ensuring that shareholders haven’t missed a payment during this 10 year period. National HealthCare seems reasonably priced when looking at its PE ratio (20.4). The industry average suggests that US Healthcare Providers and Services companies are more expensive on average 22.
Meridian Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIVO)
VIVO has a good dividend yield of 3.37% and is currently distributing 97.85% of profits to shareholders . While VIVO have continued to pay a dividend, there has been no increase in the past 10 years.
Aceto Corporation (NASDAQ:ACET)
ACET has a good dividend yield of 2.51% and their payout ratio stands at 117.51% . The company’s DPS have increased from $0.2 to $0.26 over the last 10 years. During this period, the company has not missed a dividend payment – as you would expect from a company increasing their dividend. It also looks like Aceto has some promising growth in store for the next year, with analysts expecting the company’s earnings to increase by 55.13% over the next 12 months.
For more solid dividend payers to add to your portfolio, you can use our free platform to explore our interactive list of top dividend payers.
To help readers see pass the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price sensitive company announcements.
The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned.