Dividend stocks can provide investors stability with consistent payouts to shareholders and historically less volatile share prices.

Better yet, a recent study from Hartford Funds showed that over the past 50 years, companies that grew or initiated dividends have experienced the highest returns among the S 500, with 10.24% average annual returns. In contrast, non-dividend payers yielded an average annual return of 3.95%, while those reducing or eliminating their dividends resulted in a negative return of -0.6%.

With that in mind, let's look at and Home Depot, two stocks that have long histories of paying and increasing their dividends, to see whether they might be timely additions to your portfolio.

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Source Fool.com