McKesson Co. (NYSE:MCK) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.71

McKesson Co. (NYSE:MCK) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, October 31st,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd will be paid a dividend of 0.71 per share on Thursday, January 2nd. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd.

McKesson has raised its dividend by an average of 11.8% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 17 years. McKesson has a payout ratio of 7.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect McKesson to earn $36.61 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.84 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 7.8%.

McKesson Stock Performance

NYSE:MCK opened at $628.50 on Friday. McKesson has a 52 week low of $431.35 and a 52 week high of $637.51. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $542.22 and its 200-day moving average is $559.96. The firm has a market cap of $79.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.55, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.44.

McKesson (NYSE:MCK) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported $7.07 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.88 by $0.19. The business had revenue of $93.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.33 billion. McKesson had a negative return on equity of 207.50% and a net margin of 0.77%. The firm’s revenue was up 21.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $6.23 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that McKesson will post 32.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Brian S. Tyler sold 3,753 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $561.10, for a total transaction of $2,105,808.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 78,586 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $44,094,604.60. The trade was a 4.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.11% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on MCK shares. Baird R W raised McKesson from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on McKesson from $656.00 to $661.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 21st. StockNews.com raised McKesson from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Citigroup lifted their price target on McKesson from $630.00 to $713.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised shares of McKesson from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $531.00 to $688.00 in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, McKesson currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $631.57.

McKesson Company Profile

McKesson Corporation provides healthcare services in the United States and internationally. It operates through four segments: U.S. Pharmaceutical, Prescription Technology Solutions (RxTS), Medical-Surgical Solutions, and International. The U.S. Pharmaceutical segment distributes branded, generic, specialty, biosimilar and over-the-counter pharmaceutical drugs, and other healthcare-related products.