Finding dividend stocks worth holding onto for good isn't an easy task. Investors shouldn't necessarily rely on a company's current dividend yield to make that decision. Recent history has shown that a high yield is only as secure as the business that supports it. Medical Properties Trust, for example, had one in the mid-teens only to cut its dividend, much to investors' grief.

Income-seeking investors don't want to see that happen. The best way to ensure that it won't happen is to buy shares of dividend-paying companies whose businesses are robust and likely to remain so for a long time to come. Two examples are (NYSE: NVS) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). 

Novartis is in the healthcare business, which is always in high demand. The drugs it sells are critical to patients' well-being, so neither the patients nor the physicians who prescribe these medicines are particularly inclined to stop doing so regardless of economic conditions. Novartis' best-selling drugs include heart failure therapy Entresto, immunosuppressant Cosentyx, cancer medicine Kisqali, and multiple sclerosis treatment Kesimpta.

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Source Fool.com