Key Factors
Eli Lilly is a frontrunner in GLP-1 and Alzheimer’s medicine with a robust 10-year whole return of 1,141%.
AbbVie is a dividend king, offsetting Humira losses with robust progress from Rinvoq and Skyrizi.
AstraZeneca is an oncology powerhouse with Enhertu that’s anticipated so as to add $10 billion in gross sales over 5 years.

For a lot of traders, getting concerned with pharmaceutical shares includes discovering cheap shares, usually penny shares, in hopes of investing in a breakthrough remedy for most cancers, Alzheimer’s illness, or a uncommon illness. It’s comprehensible; discovering shares like these might result in life-changing returns.
However investing this manner requires greater than a excessive threat tolerance. Even for corporations with a “positive factor” within the pipeline, it may well take years to maneuver a drug by the scientific trial stage. Throughout that point, inventory costs could be affected by merchants making an attempt to aggressively purchase or quick the inventory.
That volatility is sufficient to trigger some traders to avoid these shares and the sector. Nonetheless, there may be an alternate past this binary determination. There are a number of large-cap pharmaceutical shares that supply stability to associate with the chance for future progress. They’re known as “massive pharma” for a purpose, and that’s why these are shares that traders can maintain for the lengthy haul.
GLP-1 Management and a Rising Pipeline of Breakthrough Medication
Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE: LLY) has been a prime performer and pioneer in GLP-1 medicine. The marketplace for the corporate’s weight problems and type-2 diabetes medicine is prone to increase within the subsequent decade. Eli Lilly can be working to get these medicine permitted for brand new indications, corresponding to sleep apnea, that may enhance the addressable market much more.
That could be sufficient purpose to purchase and maintain LLY inventory, which is predicted to extend earnings by over 34% within the subsequent 12 months. However there’s extra to the story. The corporate’s sturdy pipeline consists of remedies for Alzheimer’s illness and heart problems. Actually, Eli Lilly obtained FDA approval for its Alzheimer’s illness drug, Donanemab.
Within the final 10 years, LLY inventory has delivered a complete return of over 1,141%. That features the corporate’s dividend. It solely yields 0.74%, however the firm has elevated its payout in every of these 10 years. As of the market shut on Oct. 21, LLY inventory is up round 4% in 2025, however 16% under analysts’ consensus value goal, which makes it a great inventory to purchase on the dip.
Dividend King Reinventing Progress Past Humira
It is unattainable to speak about buy-and-hold pharmaceutical shares with out citing AbbVie Inc. (NYSE: ABBV). ABBV inventory has delivered a complete return of over 540% within the final 10 years. That features the corporate’s dividend. Not solely does that dividend have the very best payout of all of the shares on this checklist, however AbbVie is a Dividend King, a uncommon group of corporations which have elevated their dividend for at the least 50 consecutive years.
The corporate’s blockbuster drug, Humira, is now not underneath patent safety. Whereas that was anticipated to negatively affect income, that is an instance of the place these large-cap names present their power.
Whereas Humira gross sales are down, AbbVie has made up for that income hit with medicine like Rinvoq and Skyrizi, which do have patent safety. Actually, within the firm’s most up-to-date earnings report, income was up 6.6% yr over yr.
Oncology Innovation Driving Lengthy-Time period Progress
For traders wanting past the US, AstraZeneca (NASDAQ: AZN) is a reputation to observe. The corporate has a various portfolio of medicine, notably in oncology. Plus, AstraZeneca has a pipeline with over 120 medicine.
It additionally gives a dividend, with a yield of 1.2%, offering revenue alongside long-term progress potential.
In October, the corporate reported profitable scientific trial outcomes for Enhertu, a breast most cancers drug in its pipeline. Enhertu is called an antibody drug conjugate (ADC), which is a extra exact, focused sort of “sensible chemotherapy.”
The drug is designed to scale back the chance of breast most cancers relapse in early-stage sufferers. The corporate believes Enhertu will add as much as $10 billion to its gross sales within the subsequent 5 years.
AZN inventory is up round 26% in 2025. That is in line with the inventory’s 10-year whole return of 212%—a mean of round 20% per yr. Nonetheless, it’s about 3% under the analysts’ consensus value goal.

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Firms Talked about in This Article:CompanyCurrent PricePrice ChangeDividend YieldP/E RatioConsensus RatingConsensus Value TargetEli Lilly and Firm (LLY)$832.83+1.4percent0.72percent54.43Moderate Purchase$938.61AbbVie (ABBV)$228.36+0.0percent2.87percent108.72Moderate Purchase$234.80AstraZeneca (AZN)$83.27-0.2percent1.21percent31.31Moderate Purchase$86.00

About Chris MarkochExperienceChris Markoch has been an editor & contributing author for DividendStocks.com since 2018.
Skilled Background: Christopher Markoch is a contract author and market analyst with over 30 years of expertise in advertising communications, together with work with monetary companies companies and banks. His distinctive mix of communication experience and market data permits him to interrupt down complicated monetary subjects for particular person traders.
Credentials: He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Enterprise and Organizational Communication from The College of Akron in Akron, Ohio.
Finance Expertise: Chris has been an editor and contributing author for DividendStocks.com since 2018 and has additionally written for InvestorPlace. He started writing about finance and investing in 2017, bringing a robust give attention to serving to readers make assured, knowledgeable selections.
Writing Focus: He focuses on worth investing, dividend-paying shares, and retirement-focused methods. His work is geared towards particular person traders trying to construct secure, income-generating portfolios.
Funding Method: Chris emphasizes worth and revenue investing whereas sustaining a give attention to context and readability. He believes that fundamentals and technicals are essential, however they solely change into actually helpful when paired with an understanding of an organization’s story. That perspective shapes each his investing selections and the steering he gives to readers.
Inspiration: “The story behind an organization or inventory is essential to me,” Chris says. “The basics or technical motion are attention-grabbing, however with out the why, they lack context for retail traders. That’s what I goal to ship.”
Enjoyable Reality: Christopher admires thought leaders like Keith Fitz-Gerald and Shah Gilani for his or her sharp market perception.
Areas of Experience: Worth investing, retirement shares, dividend shares, particular person investing
EducationBachelor of Arts in Enterprise and Organizational Communication, The College of Akron, Akron, OhioPast ExperienceInvestorPlace