Thirty-six 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 $27.00 $1,080.00 8.61%
Philip Morris (NYSE: PM) $61.83 16 $68.84 $1,101.44 11.34%
National Grid (NYSE: NGG) $45.63 22 $50.87 $1,119.14 11.48%
Annaly Capital Management (NYSE: NLY) $17.55 57 $16.58 $945.06 (5.53%)
Frontier Communications (NYSE: FTR) $8.71 149 $5.95 $886.55 (31.69%)
Southern Co. (NYSE: SO) $37.87 26 $43.12 $1,121.12 13.86%
France Telecom $22.23 45 $18.02 $810.90 (18.94%)
Vodafone Group $28.69 38 $27.87 $1,059.06 (2.86%)
Eli Lilly $34.48 29 $37.42 $1,085.18 8.53%
Bristol-Myers Squibb $25.37 39 $32.11 $1,252.29 26.57%
Cash       $44.05 0%
Dividends Receivable       $47.07 0%
Total Portfolio       $10,551.86 5.52%
Investment In SPY         (7.47%)
Return vs SPY (percentage points)         +12.99

Source: S&P Capital IQ, as of Oct. 25.

Since my last report, the SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) rose 0.39%. But the portfolio did even better, with our outperformance moving from beating the market by 12.34 percentage points to a 12.99 point advantage. 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 eight months.

Movers and shakers
Of our stocks, the biggest mover in the portfolio the past week was again Philip Morris, which rose 3.81%.

Money!
There are four upcoming dividends for the portfolio:

  • Annaly Capital Management will pay a dividend of $0.60 per share on Oct. 27. The ex-dividend date was Sept. 28.
  • Bristol-Myers Squibb will pay a dividend of $0.33 per share on Nov. 1. The ex-dividend date was Oct. 6.
  • Eli Lilly will pay a dividend of $0.49 per share on Dec. 9. The ex-dividend date is Nov. 10.
  • Southern Co. will pay a dividend of $0.4725 per share on Dec. 6. The ex-dividend date is Nov. 3.

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.