10 Best Dividend Growth Stocks to Buy and Hold Now

4. Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

5-Year Annual Dividend Growth Rate: 12.05%

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) is a global healthcare company that specializes in a wide range of related services and products. The company benefits from the defensive nature of its industry, where essential medical treatments take precedence over discretionary spending. In addition, the company’s business is diversified across three other segments: established pharmaceuticals, nutrition, and diagnostics. This diversification enables the company not to overly rely on any single segment of its business. Its diagnostic segment has been facing a decline in demand following the pandemic. In 2023, the company’s diagnostic revenues came in at over $9.9 billion, falling from $15.5 billion in 2021. However, despite this setback, Street analysts are optimistic, forecasting that the company will achieve 11% growth in revenues in both 2024 and 2025.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)’s medical device segment continues to be the primary growth driver for the company, encompassing essential products such as heart failure treatments and diabetes care solutions. Its medical dividend segment generated over $16.8 billion in revenues in 2023, up from $14.4 billion in 2021. The first quarter of 2024 marks the company’s fifth consecutive quarter of achieving double-digit organic sales growth in its core business segments, with notable strength seen in medical devices and established pharmaceuticals.

Over the past five years, Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) has raised its dividends at an annual average rate of over 12%. The company pays a quarterly dividend of $0.55 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.13%, as of July 2. With a 52-year streak under its belt, ABT is one of the best dividend aristocrat stocks on our list.

Insider Monkey’s database of Q1 2024 indicated that 62 hedge funds owned stakes in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT), down slightly from 64 in the previous quarter. The collective value of these stakes is more than $2.7 billion.