Hi all, first post here. I haven't been investing very long so this may seem silly or dumb but I've noticed a lot of dividend stocks, especially those with higher dividends tend to have a downward trending stock price over one longer timeframes.

Immediately when I see a chart that has never really been green I tend to shy away, but I still see recommendations from time to time with stocks like this. One post today mentions $WBA. I've seen it especially with tobacco and alcohol stocks, $BUD and $MO are examples here.

Why is this?

Are we expected to dollar cost average in at every opportunity and pray for a spike when ready to sell?

Or maybe need to sell out after dividend issued, before market corrects and buy back in? Seems counterintuitive for long goals

Maybe there's an overall net gain I can't see. Any software recommendations that will show combined div and stock price so I can see this? I've been playing around in sheets, I can pull div history from NASDAQ and the price data, could combine these I suppose.

Thanks in advance!