Big pharma's one of the best industries for investors hungry for high-yielding dividends. Some of the biggest stocks in this sector offer great dividends and stable cash flows, and both GlaxoSmithKline (GSK +3.31%) and AbbVie (ABBV +0.96%) rank among the top names in the industry. Glaxo's 5.4% dividend yield, in particular, is one of the best dividend draws among pharma stocks, but is that enough to recommend this stock over AbbVie for income investors?
Glaxo is coming off the fallout of its China scandal last year that cost the company dearly in the third quarter. However, Glaxo's pipeline is loaded for the long term, and the company is even optimistic about its future in China and other emerging markets. AbbVie, on the other hand, is all-in behind leading drug Humira, the immunology blockbuster that makes up nearly 60% of the company's total sales. While that reliance on one drug looks dangerous, Humira, as a biologic, won't be easily replicated in biosimilar form once its patent protection expires in 2016 -- and AbbVie is already looking to the future with its unnamed oral hepatitis C drug, which it hopes to launch at the end of the year pending regulatory approval.
Are Humira and the promises of the oral hep C market enough to make AbbVie your top dividend stock for the future, or is Glaxo's high yield and impressive pipeline the right choice? Find out in the video below, as Motley Fool contributor Dan Carroll takes you through where each of these blue-chip big pharma stocks is headed and which one's dividend looks the best for the long term.
