AbbVie has raised its dividend every year since its 2013 Abbott spin-off. See ABBV's dividend history, safety outlook, honest risks, and how to earn its payout.
About $243/year at the current 2.4% yield, before any future raises or reinvestment.
AbbVie was born in 2013 carrying two inheritances from Abbott Laboratories: Humira, which became the best-selling drug in history, and a dividend raise streak already four decades old. It has honored both — increasing the payout every year since the spin-off, by more than 330% in total — and survived the patent cliff that was supposed to end the party, keeping its place on the dividend kings list.
| Independent since | 2013, spun off from Abbott Laboratories |
| Consecutive annual raises | More than 50 years, counting the Abbott legacy |
| Status | Dividend King and Dividend Aristocrat (via the inherited streak) |
| Payment months | February, May, August, November |
| Recent raise pace | Moderate — roughly 5–6% per year, announced in late October |
| Payout ratio | Roughly 60% of free cash flow (GAAP earnings overstate it) |
Current yield, annual dividend, and the exact streak length are shown live in the stats bar above.
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 1972 | Parent Abbott begins the unbroken run of annual increases |
| 2013 | AbbVie spins off from Abbott and inherits the streak |
| 2015 | Buys Pharmacyclics for cancer drug Imbruvica |
| 2020 | $63 billion Allergan deal adds Botox and diversifies beyond Humira |
| 2023 | Humira's US biosimilars arrive — the long-feared patent cliff |
| Today | Skyrizi and Rinvoq together out-earn Humira at its peak |
Humira once generated over $20 billion a year — then lost US exclusivity in 2023. Revenue dipped, the market braced, and AbbVie kept raising anyway. Its successors Skyrizi and Rinvoq scaled so fast that combined sales have already surpassed Humira's peak. Few dividend streaks have been stress-tested this publicly and passed.
Big pharma acquisitions leave behind billions in amortization charges that crush GAAP earnings without touching cash. That's why AbbVie's payout ratio looks scary on paper yet the company throws off roughly $18 billion of free cash flow a year against about $12 billion of dividends — a comfortable cushion.
Management treats acquisitions as the pipeline: Pharmacyclics, Allergan, and a steady string of biotech deals — most recently the $10.9 billion Apogee acquisition in 2026 — keep replacing revenue before patents expire. It's a capital-intensive strategy, but it has funded raises for over a decade of independence.
The realistic downside: raise pace stuck in the mid-single digits while debt gets paid down — a cut would take a pipeline failure far bigger than the Humira cliff the company already absorbed.
The income callout above shows what a $10,000 position generates at today's yield. AbbVie sits in the middle of the dividend barbell:
AbbVie is a high-yield King with growth still attached: above-market income today, mid-single-digit raises, and pipeline risk as the price of admission.
Every major broker offers ABBV with fractional shares and free reinvestment — compare platforms, or see how its streak stacks up on the full dividend aristocrats list.
Yes — with an asterisk most lists accept. AbbVie has only existed since 2013, but it inherited the raise streak of its former parent Abbott Laboratories, which stretches back to the early 1970s. Counting the Abbott years, the streak tops 50 consecutive increases, and AbbVie has raised its own payout every single year since the spin-off — by more than 330% cumulatively.
AbbVie pays dividends quarterly, typically in February, May, August, and November. The annual increase is usually announced in late October and takes effect with the February payment.
Safer than the headline payout ratio suggests. On GAAP earnings the ratio looks alarming — often near or above 100% — but that's an accounting artifact of heavy acquisition amortization. On free cash flow, AbbVie pays out roughly 60%: about $12 billion in dividends against $18 billion of annual free cash flow. The real risk is the drug pipeline, not the current payout.
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