The 4 Biggest Dividend Payouts on Wall Street

Historically, dividends are the X-factor that can supercharge the returns of an investment portfolio.

In 2013, Bank of America/Merrill Lynch released a report analyzing the performance of companies that initiated and grew their dividends over a 40-year period between 1972 and 2012. BofA/Merrill Lynch then compared this return to that of non-dividend-paying stocks over the same time frame. The result was a 9.5% average annual return for the dividend stocks, compared to a 1.6% average annual return for the non-dividend stocks.

To put these figures into an easier-to-understand context, imagine you had $1,000 to invest back in 1972. Had you put that $1,000 into an assortment of non-dividend stocks, you'd have about $1,900 by 2012. By comparison, this same $1,000 invested into companies that initiated and grew their payout over 40 years would be worth roughly $38,000!

Continue reading

Source Fool.com