One of the secrets to great investing is that dividend stocks are some of the best performing stocks to own over the long run. It's for this reason investors would be wise to take a good look at AFLAC (AFL +0.77%), the nearly 60-year company that, by its own description, is now the largest provider of individual insurance in Japan and the leading provider of supplemental insurance in the United States.
As Motley Fool contributor John Maxfield discusses in the video below, there are at least three reasons AFLAC makes the cut. First, it yields 2.3% compared to the S&P 500, which yields 2%. Second, the company currently distributes only 21% of its earnings, leaving more than enough room to increase the dividend if its board of directors chooses to do so. And finally, AFLAC has both paid and increased its dividends consistently since at least the early 1980s.
