Dividends are important -- and not just for income investors. More than half of the S&P 500's total return over the past 30 years came from reinvesting dividends.

We asked three Motley Fool contributors to identify great dividend stocks to buy in October. Here's why they chose AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), and Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK). 

Keith Speights (AbbVie): Probably the first thing investors look for with a dividend stock is its yield. AbbVie doesn't disappoint on this front with a juicy dividend yield of 4.2%. However, this yield is only part of the story.

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Source Fool.com