Dividend Vision Lists
Healthcare Dividend Stocks
A curated list of the dividend-paying healthcare companies — large pharmaceutical makers, medical-device and life-science firms, and health insurers — a defensive sector with several long-running dividend growers.
Updated July 2026 · 23 companies
DV Scorecard
Our proprietary snapshot of this list — averages and standouts, computed from the companies below. Not investment advice.
Healthcare is a classic defensive sector: people need medicine and medical care regardless of the economy, which gives many healthcare companies steady revenues and the ability to pay reliable, often rising, dividends. This page gathers the major dividend-paying names in one place.
The list spans large pharmaceutical makers, medical-device and life-science companies, and health insurers and distributors. Some are decades-long dividend growers — several are Dividend Aristocrats — while others are steadier payers or reinvest more into research. The common thread is exposure to long-term demand from aging populations and ongoing medical innovation.
Dividend Vision's angle is durability: how safe each payout looks through our Distribution Safety Score, how the yields and growth compare across the group, and what to watch in a sector shaped by patents, pipelines, and policy. Figures refresh live from our data pipeline on every build, and nothing here is investment advice.
Healthcare Dividend Stocks
Live data joins from our pipeline on every build — click any header to sort, or open a ticker for the full analysis. We never hard-code yields, prices, or returns.
| Ticker | Company | Role | Yield | Div growth (1y) | Safety | Fwd P/E | Market cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LLY | Eli Lilly and Co. | Healthcare | 0.56% | +25.0% | 100 | 33.3 | $1.05T |
| JNJ | Johnson & Johnson | Pharmaceuticals & Medical Devices | 2.11% | +3.7% | 100 | 21.6 | $609.1B |
| ABBV | AbbVie Inc. | Biopharmaceuticals | 2.83% | +11.2% | 99 | 18.0 | $449.5B |
| UNH | UnitedHealth Group Inc. | Healthcare | 2.11% | -15.0% | 100 | 23.2 | $387.0B |
| MRK | Merck & Co., Inc. | Pharmaceuticals | 2.75% | +5.9% | 99 | 47.2 | $314.9B |
| TMO | Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. | Healthcare | 0.34% | +12.1% | 100 | 21.9 | $197.9B |
| AMGN | Amgen Inc. | Biotechnology | 2.73% | +13.1% | 100 | 16.7 | $197.7B |
| ABT | Abbott Laboratories | Medical Devices & Diagnostics | 2.82% | +10.3% | 100 | 18.1 | $175.4B |
| GILD | Gilead Sciences, Inc. | Biopharmaceuticals | 2.44% | +3.4% | 100 | 15.2 | $166.7B |
| DHR | Danaher Corp. | Healthcare | 0.72% | +41.2% | 99 | 24.3 | $144.3B |
| PFE | Pfizer Inc. | Pharmaceuticals | 3.46% | +11.1% | 100 | 8.6 | $142.8B |
| CVS | CVS Health Corp. | Healthcare | 2.51% | +3.5% | 100 | 14.5 | $137.1B |
| BMY | Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. | Healthcare | 4.29% | +2.4% | 100 | 9.6 | $124.0B |
| SYK | Stryker Corp. | Healthcare | 1.11% | +8.0% | 100 | 21.3 | $122.6B |
| MDT | Medtronic plc | Medical Devices | 3.53% | +1.7% | 100 | 14.0 | $106.5B |
| MCK | McKesson Corp. | Healthcare | 0.41% | -1.8% | 100 | 19.0 | $98.5B |
| ELV | Elevance Health Inc. | Healthcare | 1.76% | -10.8% | 100 | 13.9 | $80.9B |
| CI | The Cigna Group | Health Insurance | 2.06% | +5.3% | 100 | 9.3 | $74.5B |
| CAH | Cardinal Health Inc. | Healthcare | 0.91% | +5.7% | 100 | 19.3 | $53.5B |
| BDX | Becton, Dickinson and Company | Medical Devices | 2.42% | +106.8% | 100 | 11.9 | $44.1B |
| ZTS | Zoetis Inc. | Healthcare | 2.76% | — | 100 | 11.2 | $32.2B |
| BAX | Baxter International Inc. | Healthcare | 0.18% | -157.9% | 100 | 12.3 | $11.7B |
| HSIC | Henry Schein Inc. | Healthcare | — | — | — | 16.5 | $10.0B |
Why this list matters
Healthcare pairs defensive demand with genuine dividend growth, which is why it anchors many income and retirement portfolios — but it carries patent, pipeline, and policy risks all its own.
Who it's for
- Income and retirement investors who want defensive, growing dividends
- Investors seeking exposure to aging-population and medical-innovation trends
- Those building a defensive sleeve with a mix of pharma, devices, and insurers
- Holders comparing a healthcare stock they own against its peers on yield and safety
Benefits
- Demand for healthcare is relatively insensitive to the economic cycle
- The sector includes several long-running dividend growers and Aristocrats
- Long-term tailwinds from demographics and continued medical innovation
Risks
- Patent cliffs — a blockbuster drug losing exclusivity can dent revenue and cash flow
- Drug-pipeline risk: clinical trials and approvals can fail or slip
- Policy and pricing risk, including drug-pricing reform and reimbursement changes
- Litigation and regulatory exposure that can hit individual names
- Some fast-growing names reinvest heavily and pay little or no dividend
What to watch
- Whether a company pays a dividend and how well it's covered — start with the Distribution Safety Score and payout ratio
- Patent expirations and the strength of the drug pipeline for pharma names
- Sub-sector: a pharma maker, a device company, and a health insurer carry different risks
- Policy developments on drug pricing and reimbursement
How we rank these investments
This page is a curated universe, not a ranked buy list — the table sorts on any column. These are the dimensions we surface and what each tells you.
- Distribution yield. The current dividend as a share of price. Mature pharma and device names tend to yield more than the faster-growing innovators.
- Dividend growth. How fast the payout is rising. Several names here have long records of annual increases — often a better signal than the headline yield.
- Distribution Safety Score. Dividend Vision's proprietary read on how durable a payout looks, from the same one scorer used across the site.
- Valuation. Forward P/E and related measures put the growth expectations baked into the price in context.
- Total return. Price change plus dividends. On mature payers the dividend contributes more; on high-growth names price does most of the work.
- Business role. Pharmaceutical maker, medical-device or life-science firm, or health insurer/distributor — each behaves differently.
- Liquidity & size. Market capitalization and trading volume. Larger, more liquid names are easier to trade and tend to be less volatile.
- Payout ratio. The share of earnings paid as dividends — the cushion behind the next raise for the companies that pay one.
- Distribution frequency. How often a dividend is paid. The healthcare companies that pay generally do so quarterly.
Frequently asked questions
What counts as a healthcare dividend stock?
This page uses a curated view of the dividend-paying healthcare sector: large pharmaceutical makers, medical-device and life-science companies, and health insurers and distributors. It tracks 23 of them with live data.
Why is healthcare considered defensive?
People need medicine and medical care in any economy, so healthcare demand is relatively insensitive to the business cycle. That steadiness supports reliable revenues and dividends, which is why the sector is called defensive.
Are healthcare stocks good for dividends?
The sector includes several long-running dividend growers, including Dividend Aristocrats, alongside steadier payers. Whether any specific name fits a given investor is a personal decision; sort the table by yield or Safety Score to compare.
What is a patent cliff and why does it matter?
A patent cliff is when a major drug loses market exclusivity and faces generic competition, which can sharply cut its revenue. For pharma companies, the strength of the remaining pipeline is key to offsetting that risk — something to weigh alongside the dividend.
Which healthcare stocks are Dividend Aristocrats?
Several long-tenured healthcare names qualify as Dividend Aristocrats (25+ years of increases). Rather than list them here, see our Dividend Aristocrats page, which is filtered to that exact criterion and refreshes with live data.
Do health insurers pay dividends?
Many large managed-care and health-services companies pay a growing dividend, though yields are often modest because they also reinvest for growth. Each ticker page shows the current yield and our Distribution Safety Score.
What is the Distribution Safety Score?
It's Dividend Vision's proprietary measure of how durable a company's dividend looks, scored from 0 to 100 using the same single model applied across the site.
How is this different from a healthcare ETF?
An ETF bundles many of these names into one fund. This page lets you see and compare the individual companies, each linking to a full analysis, with a live DV Scorecard summarizing the group.
How often is this list updated?
The membership is curated, while yields, prices, market caps, and Safety Scores refresh from our data pipeline on every build. The figures reflect the most recent data run.
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