High yield can sometimes lead to high turnover. Income investors may need to be prepared to sell high-yield dividend stocks quickly if their dividends appear to be at risk.
However, it doesn't have to be that way. Here are two high-yield dividend stocks to buy in August and hold for a decade or longer.
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1. AbbVie: A Dividend King that should hold onto its crown
AbbVie (ABBV 1.45%) was spun off from Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) in 2013. The pharmaceutical company inherited blockbuster drugs Humira (a therapy targeting autoimmune diseases) and Androgel (a treatment for low testosterone levels in men), among others.
It also inherited Abbott's long track record of dividend increases and kept the momentum going. Today, AbbVie is a Dividend King with 53 consecutive years of growing dividends. Since the spinoff from Abbott, the drugmaker has grown its dividend by 310%. Its forward dividend yield now stands at 3.1%.
I think this member of dividend royalty should hold onto its crown for a long time to come. AbbVie continues to generate strong free cash flow that's more than sufficient to cover its dividend payments. More importantly, the company's financial position should improve over the next several years.
What makes this especially impressive is that it's happening despite the loss of patent exclusivity for Humira, which ranked as AbbVie's top-selling product for years. The company planned well in anticipation of this inevitable event, investing in internal research and development and strategic acquisitions.
AbbVie now has two worthy successors to Humira on the market, Rinvoq and Skyrizi. These two drugs are on track to generate combined sales this year of over $25 billion. That's more than Humira made at its peak.
The drugmaker's lineup includes other rising stars, too, like migraine therapies Qulipta and Ubrelvy and cancer drugs Elahere and Epkinly. AbbVie's pipeline features around 90 programs in clinical testing. These programs should position AbbVie well over the next decade and beyond.
2. Verizon: A telecom revolution could be coming
Verizon Communications (VZ 0.07%) provides telecommunications services to millions of customers around the world. Although the company was founded in 2000, its roots date back much further, since it was formed by a merger of Bell Atlantic (one of the regional Bell operating companies created by the breakup of AT&T in 1984) and GTE.
Income investors should love Verizon. The company's forward dividend yield is an ultra-high 5.9%. Verizon has increased its dividend for 18 consecutive years and is likely to soon extend that streak.
Although competition is fierce in its market, Verizon's business remains strong. The company reported the highest revenue in the wireless industry in the second quarter of 2025. It captured a greater broadband market share while J.D. Power chose Verizon for the best wireless network quality for the 35th time and RootMetrics named the company's 5G network as the best, fastest, and most reliable in the U.S.
Is all of that enough for Verizon to keep its dividends flowing and growing? I think so. The telecom giant's dividend payout ratio is a respectable 63%. It's also generating strong free cash flow to cover its dividend payments.
Now for perhaps the best news of all: A telecom revolution could be coming that provides a massive tailwind for Verizon. Some industry observers predict that super-high-speed 6G wireless networks will be available by 2030. Verizon consumer CEO Sowmyanarayan Sampath told The Verge in an April 2025 interview, "when 6G comes, we will be the first." The company already operates a test 6G network in Dallas.
6G could enable exciting new applications, such as holographic communications, and lead to an explosion in the adoption of Internet of Things devices. What if smartphones are replaced by new products such as smart glasses? Verizon's network will enjoy greater demand no matter what devices are most popular in the next decade.
