In June 2011, I invested my money equally in a selection of 10 high-yield dividend stocks. With a year of success behind me, I added even more money to the portfolio in July 2012, and then more again in 2013. Those names offer triple the yield of the average S&P 500 stock. You can read all the details here. Now let's check out the results so far.

Company

Cost Basis

Shares

Yield

Total Value

Return

Exelon

$41.36

28.818

3.5%

$1,034.57

(13.2%)

National Grid

$48.90

20.3693

4.9%

$1,410.17

41.6%

Philip Morris International

$78.05

25.5429

4.5%

$2,129.00

6.8%

Extendicare

$6.51

548

7.2%

$3,353.76

(6%)

Ryman Hospitality (RHP -0.32%)

$40.96

39.3

4.7%

$1,817.23

12.9%

Plum Creek Timber

$38.42

26

4.1%

$1,106.56

10.8%

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (BIP -0.47%)

$26.12

38.2825

4.9%

$1,524.41

52.5%

Seaspan (ATCO)

$17.17

136.5

6.2%

$3,026.21

29.1%

Retail Opportunity Investments

$12.20

81.95

4.1%

$1,289.07

28.9%

Annaly Preferred D

$25.50

38.9

7.7%

$944.49

(4.8%)

Gramercy Property Trust

$4.48

223

2.6%

$1,186.36

18.8%

Cash

      

$312.90

  

Dividends Receivable

      

$47.09

  

Original Investment

      

$14,983.36

  

Total Portfolio

      

$19,181.82

28%

Investment in SPDR S&P 500

(including dividends)

        

40%

Relative Performance

(percentage points)

        

(12)

Source: Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's

The total portfolio is now up 28% after climbing 3.1 percentage points from the last report. We gained on the index by 2.2 percentage points and now lag by 12 points overall. The blended yield climbed to 5.3%. Dividends and dividends receivable continued to flow into the account, and there's plenty more on the way. As some of the highfliers and momentum stocks have been hit in recent weeks, our dividend stocks continue to move ahead. If the market encounters more difficulties, I expect that dividend stocks will outperform for us.

Even as the entire portfolio gained in value, the dividend yield also went up since the last report. Brookfield Infrastructure raised its latest dividend from $0.43 per share quarterly to $0.48 -- an 11.7% increase. That's the kind of bump I like to see. Seaspan also raised its dividend by 10% -- less than the 20% I had hoped for. While I'm disappointed in the increase there, it was still an increase, and as the company builds out its fleet, the dividend ship should keep on sailing.

And then Ryman recently bumped its dividend by a solid 10% to $0.55 per share quarterly. Ryman has performed very well in the last few months, and I think its stock remains an attractive investment. And Retail Opportunity Investments also notched its payout higher by a penny per quarter to $0.16. Yes, I love getting a raise on my investments.

With nearly $400 in accumulated dividends in the portfolio, I'm still considering how to redeploy that money. I'm also considering selling one stock and redeploying that into a stock with a high-single-digit yield and significant growth prospects. I'm also debating adding a double-digit yield to the portfolio.

So, keep reading these articles, and I'll let you know what the stocks are in the coming weeks.

Dividend announcements
Dividend news:

  • Extendicare goes ex-dividend on April 25 and pays out $0.0362 per share on May 15.
  • Seaspan went ex-dividend on April 16 and pays out $0.345 per share on April 30.

All that, of course, means more money coming into our pockets.

It's fun to sit back and get paid, and with the market volatility, we might have a good chance to reinvest those dividends at good prices. Europe continues to be an absolute mess, and continued bad news will likely have stocks plunging again -- and if they do, I'll be inclined to pick more shares up.

Foolish bottom line
I've been a fan of big dividends for a while, and I think this portfolio will outperform the market over time through the power of dividends. As I promised in the original article, I'll continue to track and report on the portfolio's progress, including news on these companies.