There is no one-size-fits-all strategy to build wealth on Wall Street. However, there are strategies that seemingly offer higher rates of long-term success than others. Buying dividend stocks and holding them over long periods has, historically, been one of the smartest moves investors can make.

In 2013, the wealth management division of money-center bank JPMorgan Chase released the results of a study that compared the annualized returns over 40 years (1972-2012) of publicly traded companies that initiated and grew their payouts to those of public companies that didn't offer a dividend. The comparison between these two groupings was night and day.

Over the four-decade stretch examined, the dividend stocks produced an annualized return of 9.5%. That compared to a meager 1.6% annualized return over the same span for the companies not offering a payout.

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Source Fool.com