ABT Dividend Calculator
Dividend growth rate (CAGR)
| Year | Yield | Div / share | Annual income | Yield on cost | Cumulative income | Portfolio value | Shares |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3.1% | $2.44 | $287.00 | 2.3% | $287.00 | $11,983 | 150.44 |
| 2 | 3.5% | $2.61 | $392.27 | 2.7% | $679.27 | $13,946 | 186.62 |
| 3 | 4.0% | $2.79 | $520.70 | 3.0% | $1,200 | $15,912 | 226.95 |
| 4 | 4.5% | $2.99 | $677.62 | 3.5% | $1,878 | $17,908 | 272.24 |
| 5 | 5.2% | $3.20 | $869.84 | 4.0% | $2,747 | $19,967 | 323.54 |
| 6 | 5.9% | $3.42 | $1,106 | 4.5% | $3,854 | $22,127 | 382.16 |
| 7 | 6.7% | $3.66 | $1,398 | 5.2% | $5,252 | $24,437 | 449.85 |
| 8 | 7.7% | $3.92 | $1,761 | 6.0% | $7,013 | $26,955 | 528.90 |
| 9 | 8.8% | $4.19 | $2,216 | 7.0% | $9,229 | $29,758 | 622.36 |
| 10 | 10.0% | $4.48 | $2,790 | 8.2% | $12,019 | $32,944 | 734.37 |
Year 1-10 dividend income (preview)
Based on a $10,000 initial investment with $200.00 monthly contributions, DRIP on.
Historical dividends per share
Recent dividends
| Ex-date | Cash amount | TTM yield | Fwd yield | Share price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-04-15 | $0.63 | 2.4% | 2.5% | $101.56 |
| 2026-01-15 | $0.63 | 1.9% | 2.0% | $123.53 |
| 2025-10-15 | $0.59 | 1.8% | 1.8% | $129.45 |
| 2025-07-15 | $0.59 | 1.8% | 1.8% | $131.49 |
| 2025-04-15 | $0.59 | 1.8% | 1.9% | $126.22 |
| 2025-01-15 | $0.59 | 2.0% | 2.1% | $111.10 |
| 2024-10-15 | $0.55 | 1.9% | 1.9% | $116.05 |
| 2024-07-15 | $0.55 | 2.1% | 2.1% | $102.96 |
| 2024-04-12 | $0.55 | 1.9% | 2.0% | $109.11 |
| 2024-01-11 | $0.55 | 2.3% | 1.9% | $113.50 |
| 2023-10-12 | $0.51 | 2.8% | 2.3% | $90.19 |
| 2023-07-13 | $0.51 | 2.3% | 1.9% | $107.74 |
Source: Polygon.io. Last 12 dividend distributions, most recent first. TTM yield = sum of last 12 months of payments ÷ share price on ex-date. Forward yield = this payment × detected payout frequency ÷ share price on ex-date.
About ABT
Abbott Laboratories — ticker ABT — is a diversified US healthcare company and one of the longest-running Dividend Kings in the US equity market, with a consecutive-annual-increase streak of more than fifty-two years. The streak began in the early 1970s and has continued through every major US recession since, through multiple US healthcare-policy cycles, and through the company's own most significant corporate event: the January 2013 spinoff of its research-based pharmaceutical division into AbbVie. The spinoff is worth explaining clearly for any reader thinking about Abbott's streak. Before 2013, Abbott Laboratories operated both a medical-devices-and-nutrition-and-diagnostics conglomerate and a branded-pharmaceutical research business under one corporate roof. The 2013 separation cleaved the pharma side off into AbbVie as a standalone publicly traded company, leaving the post-spinoff Abbott as a focused medical-devices, diagnostics, nutrition, and established-pharmaceuticals business. The crucial fact for dividend-streak purposes is that Abbott continued raising the dividend every year through and after the separation; the streak number stayed with Abbott as the continuing entity, which is why ABT today is credited with the full multi-decade run that began in the early 1970s.
Post-2013 Abbott operates in four segments. Medical devices includes cardiovascular devices, neuromodulation products, structural heart implants, and the FreeStyle Libre continuous glucose monitoring franchise — a meaningful growth driver for the company through the late 2010s and into the present. Diagnostics covers core laboratory testing, molecular diagnostics, and rapid point-of-care testing — a segment that surged during COVID and has since normalized to a more sustainable run-rate revenue level. Nutrition produces infant formula and adult nutritional products including the Ensure and Similac brand families. Established Pharmaceuticals is a branded-generics business focused on international emerging markets, distinct from the patented-pharmaceutical business that left in the AbbVie spinoff. The combined business is diversified enough that no single segment dominates the earnings line, which is part of the structural reason the dividend has been resilient across cycles.
The dividend mandate has been embedded in Abbott's capital-allocation policy for so long that it functions as a structural commitment rather than a discretionary use of cash. Management has consistently prioritized maintaining and growing the dividend alongside reinvestment in the medical-device pipeline and diagnostics capabilities, with share repurchases and bolt-on acquisitions as additional capital-return levers. Credit-rating agencies have maintained Abbott at investment grade throughout the streak, with a balance-sheet profile that the rating agencies treat as conservative relative to the cash flow that services its debt. Expense ratio is not applicable to individual stocks — the figure you'll see in the calculator above is zero, since there is no fund wrapper between you and the underlying shares. The dividend has never been cut in modern history, including across the 2013 AbbVie spinoff when many spinoff parents reduce their dividend to reflect the smaller post-separation entity. That preservation through the spinoff is the structural feature that lets Abbott carry its pre-2013 history forward as a continuous King-class streak.
How ABT pays dividends
Abbott pays cash dividends quarterly, on a February–May–August–November cadence. The board declares the per-share amount each quarter; the ex-dividend date typically falls in the second or third week of the first month of the cycle, and the pay date falls roughly two weeks later. Holders who own shares as of the close on the day before the ex-date receive the dividend; holders who buy on or after the ex-date wait for the next quarterly payment. On the ex-date the share price drops by approximately the distribution amount on the open, reflecting the fact that the company has paid the cash out of its balance sheet.
Holders who DRIP through their broker receive additional shares purchased at the prevailing market price around the pay date. Most major brokers offer fractional-share DRIP for Abbott, so the full cash distribution is reinvested even when the per-share amount divided by the share price doesn't produce a whole number. The mechanics are identical to any other quarterly US dividend stock — there is no managed-distribution policy, no covered-call overlay, and the cash that funds the dividend comes from operating free cash flow generated by the four-segment business.
Recent growth pattern: Abbott has typically raised the quarterly per-share amount once per year, with the new rate taking effect on the dividend payment following the December announcement. The size of the annual hike has historically run in the mid-to-high single digits — slightly higher than the longest-streak Dividend Kings in consumer-defensive sectors, reflecting Abbott's faster-growing underlying business mix that includes medical-device innovation cycles. The calculator on this page uses a recent dividend growth rate to project the income line forward; you can override this with a custom growth rate if you want to model a more conservative or more optimistic path.
Abbott's dividends are qualified for the long-term capital-gains rate in taxable accounts, given the standard sixty-day holding-period rule. Most buy-and-hold investors clear this threshold easily. In tax-advantaged accounts the qualified-dividend treatment is moot because no current-year tax applies; the structural advantage of a long-running dividend grower is the compounding of share count via DRIP without tax friction.
Who ABT suits
Abbott suits investors who prioritize a multi-decade dividend streak, diversified healthcare exposure across devices and diagnostics rather than concentrated patent-pharma exposure, and tolerance for a yield that sits in the modest single-digit range. The yield typically sits below the broader S&P 500 average and reflects the market's pricing of streak quality, balance-sheet strength, and the relatively faster underlying business growth that Abbott's medical-device franchises produce compared to mature consumer-defensive Kings. The trade-off is the canonical Dividend King pattern: lower current yield in exchange for very high confidence that the dividend will continue and grow, with the additional feature for Abbott that the underlying business mix has a measurable growth component from continuous medical-device innovation.
The comparison readers most often want is ABT versus ABBV — the lineage twin. AbbVie was spun off from Abbott in January 2013, and the two companies share a corporate history through that point. After the spinoff, Abbott kept the streak number — the current Dividend King status of fifty-plus years is the continuation of the pre-2013 record — while AbbVie has been raising its dividend every year since the spinoff and credits itself with the combined lineage in its King classification. The substantive comparison is not about the streak number but about the underlying businesses: ABT operates in medical devices, diagnostics, nutrition, and branded generics — a diversified healthcare conglomerate with lower yield and slightly slower per-share dividend growth — while ABBV operates in branded pharmaceuticals with higher yield, faster per-share growth, and more concentrated patent-cliff exposure tied to the Humira franchise. Holding both gives diversified pre-2013-Abbott-lineage exposure across the two sides of the original company.
In taxable accounts, Abbott's dividends are qualified for the long-term capital-gains rate. In tax-advantaged accounts the treatment is moot. The structural case for ABT in a long-horizon dividend portfolio is the combination of one of the longest streaks in US healthcare, a diversified business mix that includes faster-growing medical devices alongside more mature nutrition and diagnostics, and a balance-sheet profile that has supported continuous dividend increases across multiple market cycles. As with any single-stock position, this content is educational only; it is not a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold Abbott, and individual circumstances vary. Healthcare-sector-specific risks — including device-pipeline outcomes, COVID-driven diagnostics normalization, and US healthcare-policy shifts — should be weighed against the dividend continuity record.
Hypothetical scenarios
Scenario 1: $10,000 invested in Abbott at the start of 2000
Consider a hypothetical purchase of $10,000 of Abbott Laboratories stock at the start of 2000. At that point the dividend streak was already nearly three decades long, the company was a diversified healthcare conglomerate operating across pharmaceuticals, medical devices, nutrition, and diagnostics, and the 2013 AbbVie spinoff was still more than a decade in the future. The 2000 entry price implied a per-share figure in the mid-to-high thirties on a split-adjusted basis, and the initial $10,000 would have purchased roughly two hundred sixty shares.
Holding from 2000 through to the present, with quarterly dividends reinvested via DRIP, three forces compound together. First, the per-share dividend grew each year as the company continued the streak — over the multi-decade window, the per-share figure has increased many times over, with mid-to-high single-digit annual growth supported by medical-device innovation cycles and steady contributions from the diagnostics and nutrition segments. Second, the share count grew as DRIP reinvested every quarterly distribution at the prevailing market price; share count growth alone, independent of price, would have meaningfully increased the income line by the end of the period. Third, the share price climbed broadly in line with long-run US healthcare-sector trends, with sector-specific drawdowns at various points. The 2013 AbbVie spinoff would also have left the holder with a position in AbbVie alongside the continuing Abbott shares; for the income-line calculation, the relevant fact is that Abbott's own dividend continued through the separation without a cut.
The illustrative outcome is not a precise dollar figure. It depends on the exact reinvestment prices, dividend taxes paid along the way in a taxable account, and the specific entry and exit timing. The structural point is that all three forces — per-share dividend growth, share-count growth from DRIP, and long-run price growth — compounded against the same initial position for a multi-decade window. The annual dividend income at the end of the period is meaningfully larger than the year-one income, and Abbott's unbroken streak through the 2008 financial crisis, the 2013 spinoff, the 2020 COVID disruption, and the post-COVID diagnostics normalization provides one of the cleanest illustrations of a Dividend King in the US healthcare sector. ABT is offered as a structural illustration, not a forecast.
Scenario 2: $50,000 today plus $500/month for 20 years
Consider a hypothetical accumulation strategy in Abbott Laboratories: $50,000 starting capital, plus $500 per month added on a regular cadence for 20 years. The calculator on this page can model this exactly — set Initial investment to $50,000, Extra contribution to $500, Contribution frequency to Monthly, time horizon to 20 years, and leave DRIP on.
The mechanics: each month, the new $500 buys additional shares at the current price, which adds to the share count and therefore to next quarter's dividend. Each quarter, the dividend received from all accumulated shares is reinvested, adding more shares at the prevailing price. Over 20 years this dual-track accumulation — DCA contributions plus dividend reinvestment — produces a position large enough that the annual dividend stream alone meets a meaningful portion of a typical income target, even before considering any potential price appreciation on the position. Because Abbott's per-share dividend growth has historically run in the mid-to-high single digits — slightly faster than many consumer-defensive Kings — both the share-count side and the per-share side of compounding contribute materially to the income line over a 20-year window.
What's worth focusing on is the annual dividend column in the projection table. The first few years are slow because the base of dividend-generating shares is small; by year ten the annual dividend has grown significantly above year one; by year twenty the income line has compounded substantially. That ramp is the structural argument for combining DCA with a long-streak grower like Abbott: the contribution side builds the share base while the dividend-growth side scales the income each share produces. Real outcomes depend on Abbott's future capital allocation, the trajectory of the medical-device pipeline, US healthcare-policy shifts, tax treatment, and the broader path of US equity markets. Educational only; not a forecast.
Sources & methodology
Dividend history and price data come from Polygon.io's reference and aggregates endpoints. Forward yield is computed as the sum of the most recent four cash distributions divided by the previous-close share price. The dividend growth rate shown on this page is the compound annual growth rate of total annual distributions across the available history in this snapshot.
Last updated: 2026-05-15.
Information here is for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Past dividend history does not guarantee future payments. Verify all figures with the issuer or a registered financial advisor before making investment decisions.