With many brokerages offering no-commission trading, there's effectively no minimum amount of cash you can put to work in the stock market. Whether you're investing hundreds or thousands of dollars, you can benefit from the historically strong returns available through owning a diversified portfolio of high-quality equities over many years.

Dividend stocks are a great option for investors who want to invest smaller amounts of capital, because they provide instant passive income that can be automatically reinvested so that you slowly accumulate more shares over time. Assuming you pick some great businesses to hold, this process can result in fantastic returns over many decades.

With that goal in mind, let's look at a few dividend stocks that cost less than $500 per share and have excellent long-term potential.

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Source Fool.com