There are so many good reasons to invest in dividend growth stocks that it's hard to choose the most important one. If pressed, though, I'd say it's their overall track record.

Over the 50-year period that ended in 2022, stocks in the benchmark S&P 500 index that began or grew dividend payments delivered a 10.24% annual return on average. Shares of businesses that didn't commit to returning profits to investors actually fell by 0.6% on average over the same time frame, according to Ned Davis Research and Hartford Funds.

The two dividend stocks below offer relatively high yields now. Better still, there's a good chance they'll raise their payouts at a rapid pace for many years to come.

1. CVS Health: A 3.5% yield

You're probably familiar with CVS Health's (CVS -0.22%) ubiquitous chain of retail locations. However, a much bigger part of the healthcare conglomerate's operation is managing healthcare benefits for rapidly aging Americans. Over the past year the number of Medicare Advantage plans managed by CVS Health's Aetna subsidiary grew 7%, and the company has predicted a 12% gain in 2023.

An unstoppable demographic trend makes this a great stock to buy and hold over the long term. The number of Americans age 65 and older climbed to 55.7 million in 2020, and this figure is expected to reach 80.8 million by 2040.

Collecting monthly premiums for millions of Americans is a lucrative business when you can pay your own people to provide their healthcare benefits. CVS Health has raised its dividend payout by 21% in two years, and there's plenty of room for further increases. The company met its dividend commitment using less than one-fifth of the free cash flow its operations generated over the past year.

With over 9,000 pharmacies and 1,100 walk-in clinics, CVS can provide a lot of its members' benefits. And this trend will continue. The company recently acquired Signify Health, a network of over 10,000 clinicians who connect with millions of patients annually. It also bought Oak Street Health, a value-based primary care provider with 169 medical centers spread across the country.

2. AT&T: A nearly 7% yield

AT&T (T 1.02%) famously slashed its dividend payout in early 2022. It earned its place on this list thanks to a high yield up front and the likelihood of steady payout increases in the years ahead.

Last year, AT&T spun off its media empire to create Warner Bros. Discovery. Now that it doesn't have to pour capital into a risky video streaming business, investors can look forward to steady growth from its telecommunications business.

Old-fashioned phone lines are in decline, but these losses are easily replaced by strong demand for 5G and fiber internet. In fact, first-quarter revenue from AT&T Fiber rose 30.7% year over year.

There's still a lot of room for AT&T Fiber to grow. Around 10 million of the company's business customer locations are located within 1,000 feet of its existing fiber lines. At the end of the first quarter, only around 750,000 of those businesses were using fiber from AT&T.

AT&T expects at least $16 billion in free cash flow this year, but its annual dividend commitment works out to a little less than $8 billion annually. The company will use extra free cash flow to reduce its debt load for another couple of years, but after that, its dividend payout could shoot higher. Patient investors who buy the stock now and hold on for the coming decade could receive heaps of passive income.