Eli Lilly and Company (LLY) will raise its dividend by 14.9 percent to $0.85 per share in the first quarter of 2021. Last year the company announced a 14.7 percent dividend hike, matching the 2018 increase. The pharmaceutical company has now raised its dividend for 7 consecutive years.

The next dividend is payable March 10, 2021, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on February 12, 2021. The new annual indicated rate to $3.40 per share, yields 2.0% at a stock price of $171.40.

The stock price of Eli Lilly and Company has gained 30.4 percent in 2020, outperforming most large cap farmaceutical peers and resulting in a market cap of $164 billion with the stock trading near its all time high. Eli Lilly now pays an estimated $3.2 billion in dividends annually to shareholders with dividend growth picking up in the last three years with a double digit increase announced in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

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.