5 Companies Paying Large Dividends Fully Covered by Earnings

We recently highlighted seven companies paying large dividends that are fully covered by earnings. Due to the unusually large interest in the article, we decided to revisit the same screen and dig up five more companies that meet the previously established criteria for inclusion. Above all, we looked for companies offering a dividend yield of at least 5%, with consensus analyst EPS estimates for this year and next year each exceeding the per-share amount of the indicated annual dividend. Here is what we found:Eli Lilly (LLY) [$38 per share; MV $44 billion; EV $44 billion] is a major pharma company, with franchises in neuroscience (e.g., Zyprexa, Cymbalta), endocrinology (e.g., Humalog), oncology (e.g., Alimta), and cardiovascular products (e.g., Cialis). Worldwide sales of key drug Zyprexa increased 2% from $4.9 billion in 2009 to $5.0 billion in 2010, while total revenue increased 6% to $23.1 billion in the period. Analysts expect... Read more