Merck: An Excellent Dividend Grower With Strong Annual Total Return Potential

A patient and a pharmacist talk to each other. Drazen Zigic/iStock via Getty Images It's been repeated ad nauseam, but there are no guarantees in equity investing. Even the most storied companies are susceptible to fading into the ash heap of history. At the time Lehman Brothers went bankrupt in 2008, it was in business for more than 150 years. The company established itself as the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States. High debt can only be overlooked for so long before the perfect storm brin ...