If any proverbial baby has been tossed out with the stock market bath water this year, it’s been the large cap pharmaceuticals. A combination of hot political rhetoric, opportunistic event-driven hedge funds shorting, and specialty pharmaceutical stocks taking a beating has led to one of the safest sectors on Wall Street getting treated like a pariah.

While it’s entirely possible that the political rhetoric on drug pricing could last through the entire election cycle, the fact is the top companies in the sector continue to grow their businesses organically, and they may look to acquisitions to add pipeline and products.

We screened the Merrill Lynch research universe for pharmaceutical stocks paying solid dividends that are rated Buy, and found four outstanding companies.

Abbott Labs

This top pharmaceutical stock has very solid growth potential. Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) is a leading diversified global health care company that develops, manufactures and markets branded generics, medical devices, nutritional products and diagnostic solutions. It recently agreed to acquire the equity in Minnesota-based Tendyne Holdings that it does not already own for $250 million plus future payments tied to regulatory milestones. Merrill Lynch likes the purchase and the way the company is putting its substantial balance sheet to work.

The company also offers a diversified large cap play as earnings are split between five well-positioned business segments: Nutritionals (31% of revenues), Vascular (13%), Generic Pharmaceuticals (20%), Diagnostics (25.5%) and Diabetes (10.5%).

Abbot posted solid third-quarter earnings and the emerging market sales growth continues to impress. Merrill Lynch has advised investors since the August sell-off to stay with the company.

Abbot Labs investors are paid a 2.26% dividend. The Merrill Lynch price target for the stock is $53, and the Thomson/First Call consensus target is $52.12. Shares closed Thursday at $43.50.

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Eli Lilly

This stock is high on the global pharmaceutical lists at many top Wall Street firms, and it is on the Merrill Lynch US1 list. Eli Lilly and Co. (NYSE: LLY) is a global health care company with numerous core products in a number of primary-care pharmaceutical markets. The company generates revenues from its pharmaceutical product and animal health segments.

The product portfolio includes Zyprexa (for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder), Gemzar (pancreatic cancer), Evista (osteoporosis), Cymbalta (depression), Cialis (erectile dysfunction), Strattera (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD), Erbitux (cancer) and Alimta (chemotherapy). Eli Lilly also has a strong presence in the diabetes market.

Third-quarter earnings were above the consensus estimates, but revenues fell a bit short, reflecting some potential generic competition for Cymbalta and Evista in the United States, as well as some negative currency movement. Trajenta, Strattera, Forteo and the animal health business should all help to offset the impact of genericization of former top-selling drugs.

Its new cancer drug Cyramza won FDA approval for label expansion recently, the fourth Cyramza approval in a one-year period. Cyramza has so far generated sales of $67.5 million.

The Merrill Lynch team and other analysts on Wall Street love the company’s product pipeline and point to its solanezumab drug for Alzheimer’s Phase 3 data, which had positive clinical results reported in late July, and Jardiance, the company’s drug for diabetes, CV data, which recently posted very positive clinical results. The recent Phase 3 data on evacetrapib was very solid and just another positive for the company

Shareholders receive a solid 2.61% dividend. The Merrill Lynch price target $104, and the consensus target is $96. Shares closed Thursday at $76.98.

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Merck

This remains a leading health care stock on the focus lists of many of the firms we cover. Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE: MRK) sells numerous prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies and consumer care and animal health products to customers in more than 140 countries. Merck is the world’s fourth-biggest drugmaker by revenue. It boosted its annual profit forecast earlier this year and will report third-quarter results next week.

The pharmaceutical giant recently announced very encouraging data from two pivotal Phase 3 clinical studies for its investigational antitoxin bezlotoxumab for prevention of recurrence of Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) infection. Data from the Phase 3 studies evaluated the use of bezlotoxumab alone or in combination with actoxumab. Both the studies met their primary efficacy endpoint.

Earlier this month, the FDA granted breakthrough therapy designation to Merck’s Keytruda, as the company managed to prove that the drug is better than existing therapies for treating non-small cell lung cancer. However, the relationship between Keytruda use and survival rate or disease symptoms is yet to be conclusively proved.

Merck shareholders receive a very solid 3.54% dividend. The $65 Merrill Lynch price target is above the consensus target of $62.76. Shares closed Thursday at $52.01.

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Pfizer

This stock could be offering investors the best value at current trading levels. Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) increased its product line earlier this year with a gigantic $15.2 billion purchase of Hospira, which is a top provider of sterile injectable drugs infusion technologies and biosimilars.

In other recent solid news for Pfizer, its drug Ibrance was approved for advanced breast cancer by U.S. regulators more than two months ahead of schedule, letting the drug-maker proceed with one of its most promising new blockbusters, a turn of events that Wall Street likes. With a strong pipeline and the fact that Pfizer is the world’s largest drug manufacturer by sales, many analysts feel the company can generate higher long-term revenues through the accelerated growth of its new drugs over the next five years, with Ibrance leading the way.

The company has announced that it is starting 20 clinical trials this year, and more soon after, as it also seeks to gain leadership in one of the hottest, and most lucrative, areas of medicine. Pfizer currently has eight approved cancer medicines, four of them launched in the past four years. It is running late-stage patient tests on five of those drugs for additional uses and has three other drugs in late-stage testing, which is usually the last round before seeking regulatory’ approval. In addition, the company has 14 other drug programs in early stages.

Pfizer investors are paid a tidy 3.43% dividend. The Merrill Lynch price target is $38, but the consensus target is higher at $39.89. Pfizer closed Thursday at $33.33.

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The key reason for owning top pharmaceuticals is twofold: outstanding total return through share price growth and dividends, as well as portfolio safety. In a big sell-off, pharmaceutical stocks usually are among the last to hit the sales tape. With the best earnings revisions numbers and results coming in solid, they make very good sense now, especially after the controversial political comments and other issues have sent prices plummeting lower.

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