Wall Street offers investors a multitude of pathways to grow their wealth. Among these countless strategies, few have delivered more robust long-term returns than buying and holding dividend stocks.

Last year, researchers at Hartford Funds released a lengthy report that examined the power and potential that dividend stocks bring to the table for long-term-minded investors. In particular, a collaboration with Ned Davis Research revealed a stark disparity in average annual returns between non-payers and companies that regularly pay a dividend.

According to the report ("The Power of Dividends: Past, Present, and Future"), non-payers were 18% more volatile than the benchmark S 500 and produced an average annual return of just 3.95% over a half-century (1973-2022). By comparison, companies that paid a dividend were 6% less volatile than the S 500 and more than doubled the average annual return (9.18%) of non-payers over the same timeline.

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Source Fool.com