Dividend Stock: CVS Caremark Cares About Its Dividend

CVS Caremark Cares About Its Dividend

About: (CVS Caremark (NYSE: CVS), dividend stock, Dividend Genius)

CVS Caremark (NYSE: CVS), the drugstore operator and pharmacy benefits provider, upped its quarterly dividend by 15% to 8.75 cents a share from 7.625 cents. The new dividend will be paid on February 2 to shareholders of record on January 22.

            This is the seventh consecutive year CVS has increased its dividend and the news may be all the more impressive when considering that the company said late last year that its Caremark business had lost several key pharmacy benefits clients. The shares currently yield just 0.9%, but with free cash of $1.24 billion and a payout ratio of just 12% before the new increase, CVS certainly has room for more increases in the future.