5 high-yielding stocks that best reflect the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals

December 05, 2024 at 10:57 AM EST

The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development isn’t just about sustainability or ESG or impact. It is a far broader policy document that encompasses a number of fundamental principles of human development.

The agenda, adopted in 2015, laid out an ambitious 15-year plan in which world leaders resolved “to end poverty and hunger everywhere; to combat inequalities within and among countries; to build peaceful, just and inclusive societies; to protect human rights and promote gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls; and to ensure the lasting protection of the planet and its natural resources.”

The goals state that eliminating poverty is “the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development.” As such the group resolved “to create conditions for sustainable, inclusive and sustained economic growth, shared prosperity and decent work for all, taking into account different levels of national development and capacities.”

In all the UN listed 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets that “are integrated and indivisible and balance the three dimensions of sustainable development: the economic, social and environmental.”

There is a big role for investors to play in meeting these lofty goals, the UN acknowledges. “For the world to achieve these goals, investors must back climate change solutions such as renewable energy and solutions to hunger and other problems,” the world organization says.

So are the investing opportunities tied to the 2030 goals? Morningstar recently examined the few dozen or so funds that invest according to the Sustainable Development Goals. Its analysts found five stocks that are widely owned by the largest of these funds and that stand out for their high dividend yields.

Here is a Morningstar analysis of the five:

Roche Holding AG. Roche RHHBY is a Swiss biopharmaceutical and diagnostic company with a 3.6% dividend yield. The firm’s bestselling pharmaceutical products include a variety of oncology therapies and its diagnostics group. Roche addresses SDG 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. Additionally, it incorporates SDG 12, responsible consumption and production, with a focus commitment to halving the environmental impact of its operations and products from 2019 to 2029. More information can be seen in its company’s sustainability report.

Novartis AG Registered Shares. Novartis NVS develops and manufactures innovative drugs. Its stock yields 3.5%. Novartis addresses SDG 3: ensure healthy lives and promote well-being with its goal to implement a global access strategy for all new medicines launched. SDG 5, gender equality, is addressed with Novartis’ goals of achieving gender balance in management and closing the gender pay gap by 2023. SDG 6, clean water and sanitation, is incorporated in its goal to reduce water consumption in its operations by half by 2025. The company’s incorporation of SDGs 1, 4, and 8-15 can be seen in the sustainability report.

AbbVie. AbbVie ABBV is a pharmaceutical firm with a strong exposure to immunology (with Humira, Skyrizi, and Rinvoq) and oncology (with Imbruvica and Venclexta). Abbvie addresses SDG 3, good health and well-being, as it provided comprehensive HIV care, treatment, prevention, testing, and psychosocial support for more than 25,000 children and adults in Romania and Malawi, as well as supporting its network in Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Tanzania, and Uganda. It also addresses SDG 5, gender equality, as it focuses on the proportion of women in managerial positions. Its stock has a dividend yield of 3%.

Amgen. Amgen AMGN , with a 2.75% yield, is a leader in biotechnology-based human therapeutics. Flagship drugs include red blood cell boosters Epogen and Aranesp, immune system boosters Neupogen and Neulasta, and Enbrel and Otezla for inflammatory diseases. Amgen addressed the UN’s SDG 17, partnerships, by developing a free online education platform at Harvard University that reached over 14 million new users in 2023, of which more than 86% were in low- and lower-middle-income countries. SDG 6, clean water and sanitation, is seen in its efforts to decrease water usage to achieve 34% of its 2027 targeted reduction from a 2019 baseline.

AstraZeneca PLC. The firm AZN sells branded drugs across a number of major therapeutic areas, including gastrointestinal, diabetes, cardiovascular, respiratory, cancer, immunology and rare diseases. AstraZeneca addresses SDG 3: ensure healthy lives and promote well-being, with its ambition of promoting prevention, increasing access to lifesaving treatments, and strengthening health system resilience. It also incorporates SDG 13, climate action, with its investment of $33.7 million in energy efficiency and on-site renewable energy. The company also addresses SDGs 6, 7, 12, 15, and 17, which recognize clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, responsible consumption and production, life on land, and partnerships, respectively.

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5 high-yielding stocks that best reflect the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals

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