Dividend Win Wednesday: Directors Buy $20M While Gold and Energy Sit at 6% FCF Yields

This Week's Setup

The dividend screener rotates precious metals and energy to the top five ranks, parking Newmont and ConocoPhillips at 6.2% and 5.1% FCF yields with drawdowns stretching to 18% and 14%. Fear at 33 keeps sentiment cautious, but S&P 500 CAPE at 38.9 tells you the broader market is priced for momentum while these names sit 15 to 20 percent off peak.

Pharma takes ranks 3, 4, and 6 with gross margins above 75% and payout ratios below 65%, while insiders at Newmont, ConocoPhillips, EOG, and Gilead added six- and seven-figure blocks in May.

Quick Scan

The 8 Names

1. Newmont Corporation (NEM)

Dividend yield: 1.0% | Payout ratio: 15.7% | 52w drawdown: 18.7%

FCF yield of 6.2% against a 1% dividend yield delivers payout cover of 6.6×, leaving room for capital allocation flexibility while the stock sits 18.7% below its 52-week high. Normalized P/E of 14.2 and earnings yield of 7% price the stock below long-run mean earnings power, and ROIC of 29.9% shows the business compounds cash at a mid-cycle rate.

Directors Deborah Leyva, Maura Clark, and Harry Conger each filed Form 4 buys on May 15, adding 16,605 net shares for $5.03 million across the group. Gross margin of 53.2% reflects operating leverage in a commodity business, and net debt-to-EBITDA of negative 0.2 means the balance sheet holds more cash than debt.

Revenue growth of 21.3% year-over-year captures favorable gold pricing, but the trend reverses if inflation expectations moderate or central banks reduce balance-sheet expansion. Analyst target of $142.82 implies 30.2% upside, but assumes gold holds current levels or rises further.

2. ConocoPhillips (COP)

Dividend yield: 2.9% | Payout ratio: 51.3% | 52w drawdown: 13.9%

FCF yield of 5.1% covers the 2.9% dividend 1.8× and funds shareholder yield of 3.6% when buybacks are included, while the stock trades 13.9% below its 52-week peak. EV-to-EBITDA of 6.8 sits below the historical energy-sector median, and earnings yield of 5% exceeds the long-term Treasury rate by a wide margin.

Insiders Ricardo Jaramillo Mejia, Andres Felipe Mejia Cardona, and Sylvia Escovar Gomez filed May 21 buys, adding 256,539 net shares for $6.01 million across the three officers. Interest coverage of 11.3× and net debt-to-EBITDA of 0.7 keep the balance sheet positioned for multi-year capital return even if commodity prices roll over.

Revenue growth of 7.7% year-over-year reflects moderating oil prices after the 2024–2025 rally, and gross margin of 25.1% leaves less operating leverage than pharma peers on this list. Payout ratio of 51.3% consumes half of earnings, limiting flexibility if upstream margins compress further.

3. Novartis AG (NVS)

Dividend yield: 3.3% | Payout ratio: 64.7% | 52w drawdown: 15.8%

FCF yield of 5.6% covers the 3.3% dividend 1.7×, and gross margin of 75.8% reflects pricing power across the cardio-renal, immunology, and ophthalmology franchises. ROIC of 16% shows the business earns well above cost of capital, and earnings yield of 4.9% sits above the normalized P/E of 20.6 for a company with mid-single-digit revenue growth.

Payout ratio of 64.7% consumes nearly two-thirds of earnings, leaving limited headroom for distribution growth unless free cash flow expands faster than the 9.6% revenue growth rate. Net debt-to-EBITDA of 1.75 is manageable but higher than the pharma peer median, and five-year dividend growth of 7.2% annualized lags the 10% hurdle that income investors typically target.

Novartis signed a strategic collaboration with Orionis Biosciences to discover molecular glue medicines, expanding the oncology and immunology pipeline beyond traditional small molecules. The stock sits 15.8% below its 52-week high, and analyst target of $153.87 implies 7.2% upside from current levels.

4. Biogen Inc. ([BIIB])

Dividend yield: n/a | Payout ratio: 0.0% | 52w drawdown: 8.2%

FCF yield of 7.1% ranks highest among the pharma names on this screen, and the company pays no dividend, leaving all free cash available for buybacks, pipeline investment, or balance-sheet repair. Gross margin of 75.7% matches Novartis and Gilead, and EV-to-EBITDA of 8.7 sits below the 12× median for large-cap biotech.

Insiders added 84,208 net shares for $7.42 million in the six months through May, with buying outpacing selling 25-to-1 by percentage of shares outstanding. Needham upgraded the stock to Buy from Hold with a $255 price target, citing the Alzheimer's franchise and multiple sclerosis pipeline as underappreciated by the market.

Revenue growth of 2.2% year-over-year reflects maturing neurology products, and the stock sits only 8.2% below its 52-week high, offering less entry margin than the gold and energy names at the top of the list. Interest coverage of 6.8× is the lowest among pharma peers here, and net debt-to-EBITDA of 0.6 leaves less balance-sheet flexibility than Novartis or Gilead.

5. EOG Resources, Inc. (EOG)

Dividend yield: 2.9% | Payout ratio: 43.6% | 52w drawdown: 8.5%

FCF yield of 4.7% covers the 2.9% dividend 1.6× and funds shareholder yield of 3.5% when buybacks are included, while earnings yield of 7.3% sits 4.8 percentage points above the normalized 10-year P/E. Gross margin of 63.4% is the highest among the energy names on this screen, reflecting premium Eagle Ford and Permian acreage, and ROIC of 15.2% shows the business earns mid-teens returns even at current oil prices.

Directors Lynn Dugle and Charles Crisp filed May 27 and May 28 buys, and Dugle added a second purchase on May 29, contributing to the 138,766 net shares and $5.50 million of insider accumulation over six months. Interest coverage of 28.1× and net debt-to-EBITDA of 0.35 leave the balance sheet positioned for multi-year distribution growth.

Revenue declined 3.4% year-over-year as oil realizations moderated from 2025 highs, and the stock sits only 8.5% below its 52-week peak, offering less drawdown entry margin than Newmont or ConocoPhillips. EV-to-EBITDA of 6.1 is the lowest on this screen, but the valuation compresses further only if crude prices fall below $60 per barrel.