7 Defensive Dividend Healthcare Stocks to Buy Now Adding defensive healthcare stocks can be a great way to ride out continued volatility in the market. AbbVie ( ABBV ): Investors are overreacting to this venerable big pharma company’s recent earnings report. Amgen ( AMGN ): An established biotech company with a high forward dividend yield (3.33%). Baxter International ( BAX ): A reasonably-priced medical products provider on track to deliver strong results. Quest Diagnostics ( DGX ): Focus will soon shift to the evergreen nature of its main testing business. Humana ( HUM ): Growing Medicare Advantage enrollments point to stability and growth for Humana. Merck ( MRK ): Still has room to move higher, despite recent post-earnings spike. Zoetis ( ZTS ): While regarded as a high-growth high-flier, Zoetis is inflation and recession-resistant. Uncertainty about the stock market and the overall economy continues to run high. It’s not too late to go defensive. A good way to do that is to focus your portfolio on dividend-paying defensive stocks.