Zoetis dividend: cash cover and yield
MyStockButler's October 2026 analysis: Zoetis’s declared annualized dividend is $2.12, and free cash flow covered dividends by about 2.6 times in 2025. Zoetis’s dividend yield is 2.7% at a $79.59 share price.
What dividend does Zoetis pay per share?
The dividend starts from the declared $2.12 annualized rate. The base path reaches $2.43 through modest increases, while the bear case holds at $2.12 and the bull reaches $2.82 through 10% annual growth. The pause is credible because guidance calls for contraction, but free cash flow covered dividends by about 2.6 times in 2025.
How much would Zoetis's dividend pay you?
$10,000 invested in Zoetis at its 2.7% dividend yield (our report of October 20, 2026) pays $270.00 in the first year, before tax. If its dividend per share keeps changing 19.2% a year, as it did from 2021 to 2025, and the dividends are reinvested, year 10 pays $2,219.53, with $9,114.59 received in all.
Before tax. Past dividend growth is not a promise. Information only, not investment advice.
Does Zoetis’s cash cover its dividend?
Shareholders received the largest remaining share of the cash. Dividends and repurchases totaled $11,974 million across 2021–2025, exceeding free cash flow by $2,710 million. Buybacks accounted for $8,522 million. Dividends were covered by cash generation; the additional repurchases created the shortfall. Acquisitions were a much smaller cash destination.
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free cash flow | 2,283 | 2,298 | 1,621 | 1,326 | 1,736 |
| − Dividends paid | 889 | 786 | 692 | 611 | 474 |
| − Share buybacks | 3,235 | 1,858 | 1,092 | 1,594 | 743 |
| = Free cash flow not paid out | 519 | ||||
| = Paid out more than the free cash flow | 1,841 | 346 | 163 | 879 |
What this means. The company paid shareholders more than its free cash flow in four of the five years, so it had to use savings or borrow money to cover the difference.
What is Zoetis’s dividend yield today?
Free cash flow shows the cash left after running the business and paying for necessary capital spending. Its 6.9% yield is therefore not the same as the 2.7% dividend yield: the dividend is only the portion management chooses to distribute. The remaining cash can fund research, acquisitions, debt repayment or repurchases.
| Today (Oct 20, 2026) | |
|---|---|
| Share price | 79.59 |
| Free cash flow yield (calculated) | 6.9% |
| Dividend yield (calculated) | 2.7% |
What this means. The next 12 months price-to-earnings ratio uses analysts' guesses about future profit, so it can be wrong.