3 Dividend Stocks I'd Never Sell No Matter What the Market Does

Not all dividend stocks are the same. Oh, they all obviously generate recurring investment income. But only a handful of them are truly reliable enough to be held through anything the market might throw your way.

With that as the backdrop, here's a rundown of my top-three dividend picks to buy and hold no matter what the market does. They're built to continually crank out their payments in the bad times as well as the good ones. Notice what all three have in common.

Verizon

What's the likelihood that you'll give up the handheld device you take with you wherever you go and that keeps you constantly connected to the rest of the world? If you're like the 98% of Americans who own a mobile phone and the 91% who specifically own a smartphone (according to Pew Research), that's unlikely to happen in the foreseeable future -- if ever. We're just too dependent on them perhaps to the point of being addicted.

Data from Harmony Healthcare IT indicates the average adult in the United States spends over five hours every day looking at their phone's screen. Mental health matters aside, these numbers are good news for wireless service provider Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ). It means people will reliably make their monthly payments to keep their phones turned on.

The company just needs to ensure its service and prices are competitive. And it is. As of the end of March, Verizon was serving 146.8 million different wireless connections.

There's some growth potential, even beyond what's driven solely by persistent price increases. While the mobile market is well saturated, Verizon is making impressive progress in broadband internet, adding 341,000 paying broadband customers in the first quarter, bringing its paying customer count to nearly 16.8 million. This still only scratches the surface of this business's potential.

Meanwhile, Verizon is building a business specifically meant to provide factories, schools, and corporate campuses with the communication solutions they increasingly need.

Perhaps more important to interested investors, this relatively young company -- created in 2000 through the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE -- has now upped its per-share dividend payment for 19 consecutive years. With a solid track record like that already in place, it's a pretty safe bet that this telecom powerhouse will do everything in its power to avoid starting that clock all over again.

Coca-Cola

Beverage giant Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) is such a frequently suggested dividend stock that it's almost become a cliché. It's also a frequently suggested dividend stock for a very good reason; its 64-year streak of annual dividend growth isn't likely to end anytime soon.

Credit the nature of the business, of course. The stock market's direction and the economy's underlying conditions can cause consumers to skip a vacation or postpone buying a new car. But demand for beverages never really fades, as they're usually affordable.

That being said, don't dismiss the fact that Coca-Cola's dividend is also resilient because the company's done a fantastic job of turning its brand names into a lifestyle choice.

This has made the organization the biggest and best-known name in the beverage business, and this in turn provides Coca-Cola with some serious leverage with retailers -- they want to prominently feature the company's brands like Minute Maid, Gold Peak, Powerade, and of course, its namesake cola because retailers know these brands will drive shoppers to their stores.

Newcomers to KO will be stepping into a forward-looking yield of 2.5%.

Enbridge

Finally, add oil and gas pipeline owner/operator Enbridge (NYSE: ENB) to your list of dividend stocks to never sell no matter what the market does. It's obviously in the same energy business as major integrated players like Chevron and ExxonMobil. But their fates are far from being the same.

See, the bottom lines of explorers, drillers, and refiners are directly tied to the ever-changing price of oil. If crude oil prices go up, so do their profits. If crude's market price falls, names like ExxonMobil and Chevron see their bottom lines shrink, dragging their stocks' prices down with them.

That's in contrast with pipeline outfits like Enbridge, which simply deliver oil and natural gas through their pipeline network, charging a flat fee for the amount of product pushed through its pipes regardless of the market value of that gas or oil. In other words, these companies are effectively tollbooths. As long as consumption of oil and gas remains consistent -- and we're not using any less of either than we ever have -- the pipeline industry's revenue remains consistent as well. This of course is an ideal business model for dividend-paying companies.

And Enbridge's dividend track record proves it. Leveraging its network of more than 18,000 miles' worth of oil pipeline across Canada and the United States in addition to over 19,000 miles of natural gas pipes, (Enbridge transports about one-third or North America's crude oil and roughly one-fifth of its natural gas), this company has not only paid a quarterly dividend like clockwork for decades but has raised its per-share payout every year for 31 consecutive years.

James Brumley has positions in Coca-Cola. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Chevron and Enbridge. The Motley Fool recommends Verizon Communications. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.