The Highest-Yielding Stock in the Dow Just Cut Its Dividend to Its Lowest Level in 11 Years
At a stock price of around $25 a share, Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ: WBA) is the lowest-weighted component of the price-weighted Dow Jones Industrial Average. But years of dividend raises paired with an underperforming stock price helped propel Walgreens' dividend yield to nearly 10% in late November, when the stock was selling off with no end in sight.
At the time, Walgreens was the highest-yielding stock in the Dow and briefly surpassed Altria Group as the highest-yielding stock in the entire S 500. That all changed on Jan. 4, when Walgreens announced a 48% dividend cut, reducing the quarterly payout from $0.48 a share to $0.25.
In an instant, Walgreens lost its crown as the highest-yielding Dow stock. Today, its forward yield is around just 4%, which is still far higher than the average yield in the S 500 or Dow but a far cry from the status it used to enjoy.
Source Fool.com
