2 No-Brainer Dividend Stocks to Buy for the New Year

As you build your portfolio through the years, you may find that you gravitate toward stocks across an assortment of sectors, with a range of risk profiles, growth stories, and businesses. Diversifying your portfolio is a wise move in any environment, as you can enjoy the fruits of companies with varying degrees of growth that perform differently amid market highs and lows.

Dividend stocks can be one such excellent type of investment to help you boost your returns and give you extra capital to reinvest or make use of as you so choose. If you're hunting for two great dividend stocks to buy for 2024 and hold for the long term, here are two no-brainer names to consider for your portfolio.

1. AbbVie

AbbVie (ABBV -4.58%) has 52 years of consecutive dividend increases under its belt, thanks to the storied dividend history of its parent company, Abbott Laboratories. Since the company was spun off from Abbott at the start of 2013, it has grown its payouts by a whopping 290%. At today's share price, its yield is around 4%, and the stock has delivered a 130% total return over the past five years.

The drugmaker has had to contend with the loss of patent exclusivity for its blockbuster Humira in recent quarters, but it has a powerful lineup of products in its portfolio and in development that can help to offset its falling sales from that treatment in the coming years. Broadly speaking, the pharmaceutical business is resilient, particularly compared to other industries, in the sense that consumers tend to consistently require these products regardless of what is happening with the market or the economy at large.

Regulatory factors, consumer demand, and shifts in the sales environment all impact AbbVie's top and bottom lines. That's a reality of investing in these kinds of healthcare companies, but the vital medicines and treatments they make, and often, the consistent dividend income they provide, can produce steady returns for shareholders. I would contend these value propositions certainly hold true in AbbVie's case.

While a steep decline in Humira sales weighed on AbbVie's revenue and earnings in 2023, the business still raked in $40 billion on the top line and about $4 billion on the bottom line during the first nine months of the year. High-performing drugs included Skyrizi (which treats plaque psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, and Crohn's disease), Rinvoq (which treats multiple conditions, including moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis), Imbruvica (a targeted drug that treats multiple cancers, including chronic lymphocytic leukemia), Venclexta (which treats multiple blood cancers) Botox Cosmetic, and Botox Therapeutic. These six products alone brought in combined revenues of approximately $17 billion in that nine-month period.

It's worth noting that AbbVie's net revenue total for the nine-month period was still a healthy 25% above what the company reported in the same time frame of 2020. The company also recently announced its acquisitions of Immunogen and Cerevel Therapeutics. The former will strengthen AbbVie's position in the oncology space and the latter will boost its neuroscience pipeline. Steady dividends and a portfolio of market-leading products are green flags for this stock, which looks like it would be a solid addition to any well-rounded portfolio.

2. Domino's Pizza

Domino's Pizza (DPZ 0.87%) has made it a habit to not only maintain but raise its dividend through the years. The stock currently yields around 1%, which is a bit below that of the average stock trading on the S&P 500, but is also a testament to its low payout ratio and overall strong stock performance. The company has boosted its dividend by approximately 384% over the last decade, driving a total return of 490% in that same period.

If you haven't followed this stock or its growth trajectory closely, you'd be forgiven for thinking about the business only in terms of pizza sales. While its brick-and-mortar stores have been a mainstay for consumers for decades, Domino's actually makes comparatively little directly from the sales of pizzas to people.

The company makes most of its money from supply chain revenue -- selling pizza supplies, ingredients, and equipment to stores. Most Domino's stores are franchised, and the vast majority of these locations buy ingredients and equipment from the parent company rather than using third-party entities. The second-largest driver of the company's revenue and earnings are franchising royalties and fees.

Case in point: Domino's reported revenue of $3.1 billion in 2023's third quarter. Of that total, $1.9 billion was derived from supply chain revenue, $411 million was derived from U.S. franchise royalties and fees, and $336 million came from U.S. franchise advertising. Company-owned stores accounted for $259 million, while the remaining $213 million was attributable to international franchise royalties and fees.

Domino's is also highly profitable, with a net income of $362 million in its most recently reported quarter. That was a 12% bump year over year. Over the last five years, Domino's has increased its annual revenue and profits by 25% and 13%, respectively. A consistent dividend, a history of compelling share price returns, and a simple but effective business model that relies on supply chain and franchising fees rather than customer sales are just a few reasons to like this stock as a long-term investment.