Although it isn't particularly famed as a dividend stock, Gilead Sciences (GILD 0.55%) is nevertheless a consistent payer of such distributions. Reinforcing this, the company -- these days considered a coronavirus stock due to its COVID-19 drug remdesivir -- has declared its latest quarterly dividend.
A dividend of $0.68 per share will be handed out on Sept. 29 to investors of record as of Sept. 15. On Friday's closing stock price, this would yield 3.9%.
Since initiating its payout in February of 2015, the pharmaceutical company has dispensed it in every quarter. Over that stretch of time, it has increased gradually, from an initial $0.43 per share to the present level.
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Although Gilead has been a coronavirus stock star due to recent encouraging news about remdesivir's repurposing, its most recently reported quarter wasn't exactly a standout.
As reported on Thursday, the company posted notable declines in headline financials for its second quarter of fiscal 2020. Sales fell by 10% on a year-over-year basis, while it flipped to a bottom-line loss for the period. Stripping out the pricey ($4.9 billion) acquisition of biotech Forty Seven, the company still would have seen an erosion in profit -- earnings per share in that case were $1.11, well down from the $1.72 per share of Q2 2019.
Gilead shares fell by 3.9% on Friday, despite the happy news about the new dividend. The shares declined at a rate considerably deeper than that recorded by the top equity indexes on the day.
