Just like last year Eli Lilly and Company (LLY) will raise its dividend by 14.7 percent. This time the quarterly dividend will be hiked to $0.74 per share with a first payment in 2020. The pharmaceutical company has now raised its dividend for 6 consecutive years.

The next dividend is payable March 10, 2020, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on February 14, 2020. The new annual indicated rate to $2.96 per share, yields 2.3% at a stock price of $132.51.

Eli Lilly and Company is a manufacturer of human pharmaceutical products. It’s human pharmaceutical products include endocrinology products, neuroscience products, oncology products, immunology products and cardiovascular products. In the U.S., most of Lilly's pharmaceutical products are distributed through wholesalers that serve pharmacies, physicians and other health care professionals, and hospitals. Outside the U.S, the company promotes its products to healthcare providers primarily through sales representatives and on-line health care channels. The company's Elanco Animal Health division was fully separated from Eli Lilly in 2019. Eli Lilly and Company was incorporated in 1901 in Indiana to succeed to the drug manufacturing business founded in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1876 by Colonel Eli Lilly.