Many income-focused investors put too much emphasis on a stock's current yield. A better approach is to focus on a company's ability to increase its payout.

That's clear from the data. Over the last 50 years, dividend growers in the S 500 have delivered an average annual total return of 10.2%, according to data from Hartford Funds and Ned Davis Research. That compares to a 6.6% total annual return for companies with no change to their dividend policies.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP), EOG Resources (NYSE: EOG), and (NYSE: MPLX) stand out for their ability to increase their dividends. The energy companies recently gave their investors another big raise and should have plenty of fuel to continue growing their payouts in the future.

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Source Fool.com