Top 10 Healthcare Stocks For Dividend Growth And Income

The debate in Congress rages on about the future of the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) and its potential replacement, the American Health Care Act. This uncertainty has led to some extra volatility among healthcare stocks, causing weakness in some areas of the sector.
It's been about 18 months since the original Top 10 Healthcare Stocks For Dividend Growth And Income was published, so I thought it was the perfect time to provide an update my healthcare watch list and determine if there are any attractive candidates for investment at this time.
First of all, here is a quick look at the top ten from that initial article, and how they have performed since it was published:

It is a bit of a mixed bag when looking at the results. Six of the ten selections outperformed the Health Care SPDR ETF (NYSEARCA: XLV), while just three of ten outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA: SPY).
Overall, the stocks averaged a 7.39% increase in share price. However this was dragged down by a nearly 50% drop in price from Gilead. Taking it out of the equation would bring the average return to 13.66%, well above the XLV and more in line with the S&P.
Of course, these stocks were selected based on income and income growth potential, not for capital appreciation. They had an average yield of 2.77% when selected, nearly double that of the XLV, and all of the companies have continued to raise dividends since the article.
So while it may have lagged on capital... Read more