3 Dividend Stocks Built for Long-Term Buy-and-Hold Investors

It's always nice to see your stocks appreciate, but that's far from the only way to make money in the stock market. Plenty of investors build a lot of wealth over time by embracing dividend stocks and leaning on the guaranteed income they (typically) provide.

Much of the value from investing comes over time, but it's especially true for dividend investors because dividends take time to compound. If you're looking for three dividend stocks you can confidently buy and hold for the long haul, look no further than Chevron (NYSE: CVX), ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM), and Enbridge (NYSE: ENB). They are three energy stocks with longevity you don't have to question.

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Chevron has a hand in many different energy pots

Chevron is one of the world's largest fully integrated energy companies. It finds and extracts its own crude oil (upstream), transports and stores oil and gas (midstream), and makes final products like gasoline and diesel that people use every day (downstream).

Each segment has its own set of pluses and risks, so having a hand in all three helps keep the business stable when different segments are in different parts of a cycle. That's why Chevron has consistently been one of the go-to dividend stocks in the energy sector.

When Chevron announced a dividend increase earlier this year, it was the 39th consecutive year that it had done so. It's not Dividend King status (a company with 50-plus years of consecutive increases), but it would be very surprising if it doesn't hit that mark in 11 years.

Chevron also has the financials (and financial discipline) that should make investors comfortable holding the stock without thinking twice. This year, it will pay out around $14 billion in dividends, less than the free cash flow it's expected to generate.

ExxonMobil's scale is a competitive advantage

ExxonMobil is the largest oil company in the U.S., both in market value ($610 billion at the time of writing) and oil production. It also has upstream, midstream, and downstream operations, but what primarily sets it apart from Chevron is its footprint and focus.

Chevron's key asset is the U.S. Permian Basin, the country's largest oil-producing region, located in western Texas and parts of New Mexico. ExxonMobil's key asset is the offshore Guyana territory it operates in. ExxonMobil also focuses much more on the downstream segment, as the world's largest non-state-owned refiner. The differences mean you can own both without feeling like there's too much overlap between them.

ExxonMobil has the lowest dividend yield among the three companies (around 2.8%), but it has produced the best total returns over the past five years by a long shot because of its stock price growth.

Its focus on high-return projects and large acquisitions (such as its $64.5 billion acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources) has attracted investors who prefer ExxonMobil's more aggressive growth plan. Its sheer scale makes it a great dividend stock to hold on to for decades.

Enbridge is the tollbooth that keeps getting more lucrative

Enbridge is more of a pure-play energy company, only operating in the midstream. It's a Canadian company that owns one of the largest pipeline networks around. It serves over 75% of North American oil refineries and transports a fifth of all of North America's natural gas.

Enbridge's business is essentially a tollbooth. It charges volume-based or fixed fees to transport products through its pipelines and other infrastructure. Some contracts may be long-term, while others are per-service, but either way, it's insulated from price fluctuations. It doesn't matter if a barrel of crude oil is $50 or $100; Enbridge collects the same fees.

Enbridge's current dividend yield is 4.9%, which is attractive, but noticeably below the 6.4% it has averaged over the past three years. However, that's because of its stock price growth rather than a drop in its dividend. It has 31 consecutive years of dividend increases.

It would be extremely hard for competitors to replicate Enbridge's footprint. The regulatory and financial barriers give Enbridge a competitive moat that ensures longevity. It will continue being one of the more dominant midstream energy companies for quite some time.

Stefon Walters has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Chevron and Enbridge. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.