Tale of the tape
Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) was the Dow’s first pure-play pharmaceutical company when it joined the index 33 years ago. The New Jersey-based drugmaker might just have the most ancient roots of any Dow Jones Industrial Average (Dow Jones Indices:.DJI) component, as it traces its origins to 1668, when namesake Friedrich Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) acquired a drugstore in Germany. However, it wasn’t until after a 1953 merger with American drugmaker Sharp & Dohme that Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) began to resemble the modern multinational pharmaceutical manufacturer today’s investors know and love. Since that merger, Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) has grown to become the third-largest pharmaceutical company in the United States by revenues.
Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) might not have the same long-term pedigree, but its history can be traced back to 1876, when Alexander Graham Bell first patented the telephone. Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) is made up of several major chunks of the former Bell System that eventually reassembled after its 1984 divestiture, as well as some independent holdouts that eventually succumbed to merger pressure. The New York City-based telecom giant consistently battles the Dow Jones Industrial Average (Dow Jones Indices:.DJI)’s other telecom giant for dominance of the American market, a contest in which Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) narrowly finished second last year. Verizon’s wireless venture, however, is still the top American wireless provider, with over 115 million subscriptions at the end of the 2012 fiscal year.
| Statistic | Merck | Verizon |
|---|---|---|
| Market cap | $146.6 billion | $149.6 billion |
| P/E Ratio | 24.8 | 126.6 |
| Trailing 12-month profit margin | 13% | 1% |
| TTM free cash flow margin* | 17.8% | 11% |
| Five-year total return | 65.7% | 104.1% |
Source: Morningstar and YCharts.
*Free cash flow margin is free cash flow divided by revenue for the trailing 12 months.
Our two combatants might have very similar market caps, but it looks like Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) is a better bargain thanks to its superior free cash flow margin. Will the results bear out this assumption? There’s only one way to find out …
Round one: endurance
Merck has been paying dividends without interruption since 1970. That would earn it an easy victory over Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ), which traces its direct corporate lineage back to 1984. However, it’s certainly possible that a number of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) shareholders originally held shares in the Bell System, which has a history of dividend payments stretching back to 1893. When it comes to longevity, it’s hard to beat more than a century of payouts, even if most of those payouts were made by a monopoly broken by an antitrust suit.
Winner: Verizon, 1-0.
Round two: stability
Paying dividends is well and good, but how long have our two companies been increasing their dividends? The same dividend payout year after year can quickly fall behind a rising market, and there’s no better sign of a company’s financial stability than a rising payout in a weak market (as long as it’s sustainable, of course). Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) has been increasing its payouts every year since 2004, which is more than enough time to beat Merck — before boosting its payout at the end of 2011, Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) had actually been keeping its payout at the same level since 2004.
Winner: Verizon, 2-0.
Round three: power
It’s not that hard to commit to paying back shareholders, but are these payments enticing, or merely tokens? Let’s take a look at how both companies have maintained their dividend yields over time as their businesses and share prices grow:
MRK Dividend Yield data by YCharts
Winner: Verizon, 3-0.
