It's a scary time to be an investor, with the markets languishing and the threat of additional interest rate hikes next year weighing on stock prices. In this environment, it is important to control risk and one way to do that is by investing in quality healthcare companies with consistent, sustainable dividends.
Cardinal Health (NYSE: CAH) and AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV) offer dependable revenue growth with above-average dividends. These are the type of value companies investors turn to in tough times and they are likely to be among the first stocks to bounce back when the economy improves.
Cardinal Health's stock is up more than 60% over the past year. The drug and laboratory products distributor operates in two segments: pharmaceutical and medical. In the first quarter of fiscal 2023, it reported revenue of $49.6 billion, up 13% year over year, with income from operations of $137 million, down 67% over the same period in 2022, and earnings per share (EPS) of $0.40, down 57% year over year. The pharmaceutical segment is the one fueling growth, bringing in $46 billion of the company's first-quarter revenue, up 15% year over year. Medical saw revenue fall by 9% to $3.8 billion, with lower product and distribution sales.
For further details see:
2 Healthcare Stocks You Can Buy and Hold for the Next Decade