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Top Dividend Stocks: These Dow Giants Paid Out $23 Billion in 2013

By Demitri Kalogeropoulos – Jan 22, 2014 at 10:18AM

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Shareholders of these three dividend giants made some serious cash last year.

Dividend investors saw a record year in 2013. The 30 stocks that compose the Dow Jones Industrial Average paid out a record $124 billion in dividends to their shareholders over the year.

In the video below, Fool contributor Demitrios Kalogeropoulos takes a closer look at three of the biggest dividend giants from that group: Microsoft (MSFT -2.58%), Chevron (CVX 1.47%), and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ 0.99%), which together distributed $23 billion to investors in 2013. He notes that all three companies have already boosted their payouts for 2014 and that their earnings levels leave a lot of room for dividend growth in the years ahead.

Fool contributor Demitrios Kalogeropoulos has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Chevron and Johnson & Johnson. The Motley Fool owns shares of Johnson & Johnson and Microsoft. 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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