McKesson Co. (MCK) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.71 on April 1st

McKesson Co. (NYSE:MCK) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 30th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid a dividend of 0.71 per share on Tuesday, April 1st. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd.

McKesson has raised its dividend payment by an average of 14.3% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 17 consecutive years. McKesson has a payout ratio of 6.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect McKesson to earn $36.64 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 Trading Up 3.2 %

Shares of MCK stock opened at $640.82 on Friday. McKesson has a 1 year low of $464.42 and a 1 year high of $641.70. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $594.13 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $564.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $80.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.34, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.52.

McKesson (NYSE:MCK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The company reported $8.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $8.60 by ($0.57). McKesson had a net margin of 0.82% and a negative return on equity of 181.26%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that McKesson will post 32.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at McKesson

In other McKesson news, EVP Leann B. Smith sold 188 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $609.59, for a total value of $114,602.92. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 1,051 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $640,679.09. The trade was a 15.17 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Brian S. Tyler sold 8,961 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $600.66, for a total transaction of $5,382,514.26. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 69,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $41,820,952.50. This represents a 11.40 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 19,268 shares of company stock valued at $11,536,378 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.11% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MCK has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of McKesson from $612.00 to $642.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. StockNews.com lowered shares of McKesson from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of McKesson from $713.00 to $677.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of McKesson from $535.00 to $641.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of McKesson from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $531.00 to $688.00 in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $645.79.

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.