This Pharma Dividend Has Been Raised Every Single Year for Over a Decade

Key Points
AbbVie has successfully navigated through a major patent cliff, enabling it to sustain a dividend growth streak for more than a decade.
Thanks to two strong product portfolios, AbbVie's underlying growth, dividend growth, and share price growth are likely to persist.
Poised for further strong growth, consider this stock a strong choice for "buy and hold" investors.
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AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV), spun off from Abbott Laboratories in 2013, has raised its quarterly dividend each year since becoming an independent, publicly traded company. This comes even as the North Chicago, Illinois-based pharmaceutical company has contended with a major headwind : losing major patent exclusivity for its prior flagship drug, Humira.
But AbbVie was able to solidify its position thanks to the launches of autoimmune treatment Skyrizi and inflammatory disease treatment Rinvoq. Both helped to counter declining Humira sales, enabling AbbVie to remain a dividend growth stock for over a dozen years.
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Thanks to anticipated continued growth in Skyrizi and Rinvoq sales, plus growth from another of AbbVie's product portfolios, AbbVie investors appear positioned to benefit from further share appreciation and dividend growth.
AbbVie has the ingredients in place for further growth
Even as Humira's impact on AbbVie's bottom line declines, the pharma giant's sales are better than ever -- with more to come. Forecasts call for Skyrizi and Rinvoq, which generated $31 billion in revenue in 2025, to reach around $50 billion by 2030.
Alongside Skyrizi and Rinvoq, both which are classified as within AbbVie's immunology portfolio, another area contributing to growth is the company's neuroscience portfolio. Sales of key products such as Vraylar, Botox Therapeutic, and Ubrelvy experienced year-over-year increases in the low-teens percentage range.
The moderate growth with this portfolio is helping to counter declining sales among AbbVie's other drugs, such as oncology treatments like Imbruvica, as well as aesthetics treatments like Juvederm. In turn, as strong growth for the Skyrizi and Rinvoz persists into 2026, AbbVie remains positioned to experience major boost in earnings growth this year.
What this means for future dividend growth and total returns
Late last year, AbbVie announced a 5.5% increase to its quarterly dividend, raising it to $1.73 per share, or $6.92 per share annually. The current payout rate gives the stock a forward dividend yield of around 3.2%. However, with forecasts calling for earnings to rise by around 45.4% in 2026 and 10.8% in 2027, much larger dividend increases could occur down the road.
In terms of share price, there's reason to believe that AbbVie will continue to move in line with earnings and dividend growth. Currently, the stock sells for around 17 times forward earnings. This may represent a valuation premium to other pharmaceutical stocks but may be justified given AbbVie's stronger growth prospects.
While AbbVie is, of course, many years away from becoming one of the Dividend Kings, or companies with over 50 consecutive years of dividend growth, I wouldn't discount its eventual chances of hitting this milestone. After all, AbbVie was spun out of a Dividend King in Abbott. Alongside this pedigree, the company's success in navigating a patent cliff through the launch of new blockbuster drugs suggests strong results, dividend growth, and share price performance will continue.
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Thomas Niel has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends AbbVie and Abbott Laboratories. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.