- CNBC Video: Warren Buffett & Bill Gates - Keeping American Great
- Lightning Round: CVS Caremark, Devon Energy, Tyson Foods and More
- Lightning Round OT: Ford, NewAlliance Bancshares and More
- Why You Should Speculate on Stocks
- Next Week’s Top IPO
- U.S. Stocks Rally for the Second Straight Week
- Cramer: 5 Earnings Reports to Watch Next Week
- Your First Move For Monday November 16th
- Web Extra: Where Will The Next Bull Come From?
- Burned by Yahoo!, Disney and More
MOST SHARED
- CNBC Video: Warren Buffett & Bill Gates - Keeping American Great
- CNBC TRANSCRIPT: Warren Buffett & Bill Gates - Keeping America Great
- Analysis: APEC Nations Back Face-Saving Climate Plan
- Israel Going Green
- China's Role as Lender Alters Dynamics for United States
- Microsoft's Bill Gates Praises Apple's Steve Jobs For 'Saving the Company'
- Has Twitter's Finest Hours (Seconds) Come and Gone?
- Texas Man Drives Bugatti Into Pond; Blames Bird
RSS FEED
Text Size 
With a 5.6% dividend yield, Pfizer [PFE
Loading...
()
] is currently the highest yielding stock in the Dow Jones Industrial Average [.DJIA
Loading...
()
]and ranks 20th in yield on the S&P 500. As a point of comparison, 30 Yr treasuries and the Lehman Aggregate Bond Index are yielding about 4.5%. The Lehman Corporate Bond Index is yielding 5.55%. So is it the time to buy PFE?
Maybe in a volatile market like we have been experiencing, it is good to look for yields like Pfizer's. The healthcare sector is a traditional defensive play during an economic downturn. People still need to take their meds and a good dividend is a hedge against downward movement. In the 1990-91 recession, the S&P Healthcare Index gained 22%. During the 2001 recession, the index fell 1.3% but was the second best performing sector overall (only the S&P Materials index has a positive return).
Here are the top yielding stocks in the S&P Healthcare Index:
S&P 500 Healthcare Sector |
| Symbol | Company Name | % Yield | 3 Month % Chg | PE | Fwd Growth | PEG |
| PFE | Pfizer | 5.64 | -4.2 | 18.8 | 6.3 | 3.0 |
| BMY | Bristol Myers Squibb | 5.35 | -20.5 | 22.0 | 17.9 | 1.2 |
| LLY | Eli Lilly and Co | 3.69 | -4.5 | 18.7 | 10.2 | 1.8 |
| MRK | Merck & Co | 3.27 | -20.0 | 31.7 | 12.0 | 2.6 |
| WYE | Wyeth | 2.87 | -18.6 | 11.8 | 7.2 | 1.6 |
| JNJ | Johnson and Johnson | 2.64 | -6.4 | 17.5 | 5.9 | 3.0 |
| ABT | Abbott Labs | 2.32 | -2.3 | 24.8 | 11.5 | 2.2 |
| MYL | Mylan | 1.86 | -9.8 | 10.5 | -51.3 | -0.2 |
| COV | Covidien | 1.47 | 8.9 | -71.6 | 13.6 | -5.3 |
| BAX | Baxter Intl | 1.42 | 3.5 | 23.8 | 13.2 | 1.8 |
Data provided by Reuters
Both Pfizer and Bristol Myers [BMY
Loading...
()
]offer high yields. Both are trading at PEs below the sector average of 24. BMY has been beaten up a lot lately and the analysts are projecting good growth between this current fiscal year and the next year giving it a more attractive PEG. According to Thomson Financial, if you look at the analyst picks, BMY has 7 buys, 12 holds and no sells. PFE has 9 buys, 12 holds and 2 sells.
Looking at their charts, they both are trending downward. Pfizer's 200 day moving average turned south back in June of last year while BMY went downward in January.
 |
 |
- Warren Buffett and Bill Gates spoke to Columbia students, and Buffett made the students a startling offer.
- For the chief of cable company Comcast, growth has been about making deals – generally very large deals.
- Some companies may start using insurance to shift carbon risk from their balance sheets to maybe... yours?
- The president and founder of Genesis Today wants to improve America’s health, and thinks Wal-Mart can help.
- Switzerland's privacy watchdog is taking legal action to force Google to make changes to its Street View service.
- A wealthy, distracted Texas driver crashed his million-dollar Bugatti Veyron sports car into a salt marsh, say police.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes