This will go down in history as an incredible year for stocks. The S&P 500 hit a new all-time high 50 times. For perspective, there are about 250 trading days in the year. So, on average, the market made history every five days this year. This is excellent for existing portfolios, but makes it challenging to find bargains.

Higher prices mean that dividend investors get lower yields on new positions. The key is to be selective and take advantage of dips in prices of high-quality dividend companies. AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV) recently dipped nearly 20% and is still down 14%, offering an enticing 3.7% forward yield. Here's what makes AbbVie a long-term buy-and-hold dividend gold mine.

Why did AbbVie's stock dip?

Like growth stocks, pharmaceutical stocks can have wild swings as the market digests -- and often overreacts to -- news. This is the case here. AbbVie acquired the clinical-stage pharma company Cerevel Therapeutics in late 2023 for $8.7 billion. Cerevel brought seven pipeline drugs to the fold in various stages of the approval process. Its most promising drug, emraclidine, failed to meet its primary endpoint in a phase 2 trial to treat schizophrenia. This is disappointing; however, the drug is still being tested for use in Alzheimer's, and there are other drugs in the pipeline.

Did the market overreact? It sure looks like it. As shown below, the stock lost as much as $69 billion in market cap after that announcement before recovering slightly.

Considering the Cerevel acquisition price and that its pipeline is more of a cherry on top for AbbVie rather than something expected to be its future bread and butter, this huge loss is another golden opportunity for investors.

Here's why AbbVie is an excellent dividend stock

Despite the Cerevel setback, AbbVie's current lineup and pipeline are robust. The main cogs are Skyrizi and Rinvoq, which are expected to replace the revenue lost when Humira biosimilars hit the market. Humira sales peaked at $21 billion in 2022, falling to $14 billion in 2023. AbbVie expects the new all-stars to exceed $27 billion in annual sales within three years, as you can see below.

AbbVie's other recent acquisition was ImmunoGen, whose signature drug, Elahere, is on the market. It is currently only approved to treat a specific type of ovarian cancer. However, four other indications are in the phase 2 or phase 3 approval stage. It was also just approved in Europe in November. AbbVie also has strong sales in its oncology, aesthetics, and neuroscience segments. This is why the company hit $55 billion in sales over the trailing 12 months (just slightly lower than the $58 billion during peak-Humira 2022), and should eclipse this next year.