Over long periods, Wall Street is a money machine for investors. But on a year-to-year basis, the stock market can be a bit of a guessing game. Last year, the three major U.S. stock indexes produced their worst returns since 2008. Unless you were short-selling equities or heavily invested in energy stocks, you probably had a rough year.

When Wall Street struggles, it's common for investors to turn their attention to dividend stocks. Publicly traded companies that pay regular dividends are often able to do so because they're recurringly profitable and have transparent long-term outlooks. In other words, they're the types of companies you'd want to have in your portfolio during periods of heightened volatility -- and Wall Street analysts know this.

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Source Fool.com