Royalty Pharma PLC (RPRX) has announced its first dividend hike since the pharmaceutical company became publicly listed earlier this year as one of the biggest initial public offerings in the United States. The company initiated a $0.15 per share quarterly dividend in 2020 and will now hike its dividend by 13.3 percent to 17 cents per share quarterly.

This increased dividend of $0.17 per share will be paid on March 15, 2021, to shareholders of record at the close of business on February 19, 2021. This results in a dividend yield of 1.3% based on a stock price of $51.27 and a new annual dividend rate of 68 cents per share.

Royalty Pharma will pay an estimated annual dividend of $428 million to its shareholders if we include this latest dividend hike.

Founded in 1996, Royalty Pharma is the largest buyer of biopharmaceutical royalties and a leading funder of innovation across the biopharmaceutical industry, collaborating with innovators from academic institutions, research hospitals and not-for-profits through small and mid-cap biotechnology companies to leading global pharmaceutical companies. Royalty Pharma has assembled a portfolio of royalties which entitles it to payments based directly on the top-line sales of many of the industry’s leading therapies. Royalty Pharma funds innovation in the biopharmaceutical industry both directly and indirectly - directly when it partners with companies to co-fund late-stage clinical trials and new product launches in exchange for future royalties, and indirectly when it acquires existing royalties from the original innovators. Royalty Pharma’s current portfolio includes royalties on more than 45 commercial products, including AbbVie and J&J’s Imbruvica, Astellas and Pfizer’s Xtandi, Biogen’s Tysabri, Gilead’s HIV franchise, Merck’s Januvia, Novartis’ Promacta, and Vertex’s Kalydeco, Symdeko and Trikafta, and four development-stage product candidates. Royalty Pharma became publicly listed on June 16, 2020 and initiated a dividend later that year.