This has been a roller-coaster year for investors. The S&P 500 index got off to its worst start since 1970, and bottomed out (so far) in mid-June. But it has spent much of the last two months clawing back at least some of those losses.

While such downturns can be painful for investors, market sell-offs also present opportunities to buy good companies at lower prices. One category of equity that offers you a particularly good way to take advantage is dividend stocks.

Companies that have histories of paying dividends regularly tend to be consistently profitable and have strong balance sheets -- allowing them to better weather economic contractions and recessions. If you have $1,000 to put into your portfolio now, I'd suggest splitting it among these three stocks that today offer ultra-high dividend yields of 5.3% or more.

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Source Fool.com