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This High Yield Portfolio Will Beat the Market

By Dan Dzombak – Updated Apr 6, 2017 at 9:55PM

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11 weeks in, my dividend picks are already beating the market.

Eleven weeks ago, I invested my cold hard cash into 10 high-yield dividend stocks I believe will beat the market. Let's see the results so far:

Company

Average Cost

Shares

Recent Price

Total Value

Return

Altria (NYSE: MO)

$24.86

40

$27.17

$1,086.80

9.29%

Philip Morris (NYSE: PM)

$61.83

16

$68.28

$1,092.48

10.43%

National Grid (NYSE: NGG)

$45.63

22

$51.59

$1,134.98

13.06%

Annaly Capital Management (NYSE: NLY)

$17.55

57

$17.95

$1,023.15

2.28%

Frontier Communications (NYSE: FTR)

$9.36

106

$8.74

$926.44

(6.62%)

Southern Company (NYSE: SO)

$37.87

26

$39.91

$1,037.66

5.39%

France Telecom

$22.23

45

$22.75

$1,023.75

2.34%

Vodafone Group

$28.88

34

$27.94

$949.96

(3.25%)

Eli Lilly

$34.48

29

$38.72

$1,122.88

12.30%

Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY)

$25.37

39

$28.81

$1,123.59

13.56%

Cash  

147.24

 

$147.24

0%

Dividends Receivable  

12.29

 

$12.29

0%

Total Portfolio      

$10,681.22

6.81%

Investment In SPY        

3.51%

Return vs. SPY (percentage points)        

+3.30

Source: Capital IQ, a division of Standard and Poor's. SPY = SPDR S&P 500 ETF. Data as of May 10.

Since we last checked in, the S&P's return has risen by about 1.6 percentage points. But our portfolio did even better, moving from outperforming the market by 1.4 percentage points to beating it by about 3.3 percentage points. While outperformance is always good, it should be taken with a grain of salt. We're investing for the long term, and it's only been 11 weeks. I firmly believe the results will bear us out.

Movers and shakers
Of our stocks, the biggest mover in the portfolio the past two weeks was Eli Lilly, which rose 6.78%. The company beat earnings expectations a few weeks ago and recently announced a partnership with Medtronic to develop a new drug-device combination for Parkinson’s disease. Fool Analyst Brian Orelli believes investors shouldn’t get their hopes up.

Money!
There are 3 upcoming dividends for the portfolio:

  1. Eli Lilly will pay a dividend of $0.49 on June 10. The ex-dividend date is today, May 11.
  2. France Telecom will pay a dividend of 1.40 euros on June 15. The ex-dividend date is June 10.
  3. Southern Company will pay a dividend of $0.4725, a 3.9% increase, on June 6. The ex-dividend date was April 28.

Commentary
Fool analyst Anders Bylund examined Frontier Communications and determined that its huge dividend is safe.

Good reads: Commodities, silver, and gold
Commodities have been in the news a lot lately, and you may be considering investing in them. I wrote an article on what I think about investing in commodities and where I see value now.

Click here to read “The Secret to Commodities Investing.”

Fellow fool Alex Dumortier also penned two interesting articles on why you should be careful about investing in silver and gold.

Click here to read “Gold Is Now 3 Times Overpriced .”

Click here to read “Warning! Silver Will Fall by 66%.”

My Foolish bottom line
I'm highly confident in this portfolio's ability to crush the market over the next decade, and that's why I put $10,000 of my personal cash into these stocks. My strategy is simple. I'm buying strong companies with outsized dividends, reinvesting those dividends, and holding them for the long run. Over the coming year, I'll track my performance, update you on when I'm going to reinvest all my dividends, and keep you abreast of news affecting these companies.

Consider the 10 stocks above along with the 13 names from a free report from Motley Fool's expert analysts called "13 High-Yielding Stocks to Buy Today," including one named by a senior retail analyst as "the dividend play of a lifetime." Tens of thousands have requested access to this report and today I invite you to download it at no cost to you. To get instant access to the names of these 13 high-yielders, simply click here -- it's free.

Dan Dzombak can be found on his Twitter account: @DanDzombak. He owns shares of Altria, Philip Morris, National Grid, Annaly Capital, Frontier, Southern Company, France Telecom, Vodafone, Eli Lilly, and Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Vodafone is a Motley Fool Inside Value recommendation. Philip Morris is a Motley Fool Global Gains pick. France Telecom, National Grid, and Southern Company are Motley Fool Income Investor picks. The Fool owns shares of Altria Group, Annaly Capital, Medtronic, and Philip Morris. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Stocks Mentioned

Annaly Capital Management, Inc. Stock Quote
Annaly Capital Management, Inc.
NLY
$20.60 (-8.85%) $-2.00
Bristol Myers Squibb Company Stock Quote
Bristol Myers Squibb Company
BMY
$70.15 (-0.79%) $0.56
Altria Group, Inc. Stock Quote
Altria Group, Inc.
MO
$41.47 (-0.50%) $0.21
Frontier Communications Corporation Stock Quote
Frontier Communications Corporation
FTR
Philip Morris International Inc. Stock Quote
Philip Morris International Inc.
PM
$90.17 (-1.76%) $-1.62
The Southern Company Stock Quote
The Southern Company
SO
$73.15 (-2.45%) $-1.84
National Grid plc Stock Quote
National Grid plc
NGG
$53.54 (-4.94%) $-2.78

*Average returns of all recommendations since inception. Cost basis and return based on previous market day close.

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