13 Dividend Stocks That Have Paid Investors for 100+ Years
When it comes to investing in dividend stocks, it's patience that results in the real payday for shareholders.
The most obvious measure of a company's income potential, its dividend yield, is calculated on an annualized basis using 12 months of distributions. That typically is spread across four payments, with one dividend paid out each quarter, meaning you can hold a stock for about 12 weeks without seeing a penny in dividends if you wind up selling at an inopportune time.
Beyond the simple practicalities of making sure you're eligible for the next dividend, the real reason patience pays for income investors is the dramatic lift dividends provide over the very long term. Consider that the S&P 500 Index of large U.S. stocks is up 167% since the beginning of 2010. However, if you account for the dividends paid out by the constituent stocks in this benchmark and reinvest that cash back into the index, your return jumps to more than 230% over the past 10 years or so!
If this is the performance that dividends can deliver across a decade, imagine what happens when you account for a century or
