Twenty-two 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

$26.60

$1,064.00

7.00%

Philip Morris (NYSE: PM)

$61.83

16

$66.83

$1,069.28

8.09%

National Grid (NYSE: NGG)

$45.63

22

$48.33

$1,063.26

5.92%

Annaly Capital Management (NYSE: NLY)

$17.55

57

$17.79

$1,014.03

1.37%

Frontier Communications (NYSE: FTR)

$9.14

125

$7.58

$947.50

(17.09%)

Southern Co. (NYSE: SO)

$37.87

26

$39.99

$1,039.74

5.60%

France Telecom (NYSE: FTE)

$22.23

45

$19.35

$870.75

(12.96%)

Vodafone Group (NYSE: VOD)

$28.88

34

$25.45

$865.30

(11.88%)

Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY)

$34.48

29

$38.05

$1,103.45

10.35%

Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY)

$25.37

39

$28.66

$1,117.74

12.97%

Cash

  

110.49

  

110.49

0%

Dividends Receivable

  

125.05

  

125.05

0%

Total Portfolio

     

$10,390.59

3.91%

Investment In SPY

        

0.00%

Return vs SPY

        

3.91%

Source: Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's. Data as of July 18.

Over the past week, the S&P fell 1%. As the market fell, our portfolio outperformance dropped from 4.46% to 3.91%. 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 twenty-two weeks. I firmly believe the results will bear us out.

Movers and shakers
Of our stocks, the biggest mover in the portfolio the past week was Frontier Communications, which fell 7.55%. All our telecom stocks were down, with France Telecom and Vodafone falling roughly 5% and National Grid falling 2.4%.

Money!
There are 5 upcoming dividends for the portfolio:

  1. Annaly Capital Management will pay a dividend of $0.65 on July 28. The ex-dividend date was June 28.
  2. Bristol-Meyers Squibb will pay a dividend of $0.33 on Aug. 1. The ex-dividend date was June 29.
  3. Vodafone will pay a dividend of GBP 0.605 on Aug. 5. The ex-dividend date was June 1.
  4. National Grid will pay a dividend of $1.9005 on Aug. 17. The ex-dividend date was June 3.
  5. Eli Lilly will pay a dividend of $0.49 on Sept. 9. The ex-dividend date is Aug. 11.

The extraordinary power of dividends
Fellow Fool Morgan Housel has been writing a series of articles trying to hammer home the importance and power of dividends. Two of his articles highlight stocks in the portfolio, and the results are truly amazing.

One article shows how Southern's shares have increased only 200% since the late 1960s. But if you had reinvested the dividends, the total return jumps to nearly 10,000%! More impressively, a second article shows how Altria's shares have increased 11,000% since the late 1960s. Including reinvested dividends, the total return jumps to 278,000%!

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 of my dividends, and keep you abreast of news affecting these companies.

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