Best Long Haul Stocks

Wharton professor Jeremy Siegel came up with the term "corporate El Dorado" while studying the common characteristics of the greatest stocks in S&P 500 history. He found that 97% of the total after-inflation accumulation from stocks came from reinvesting dividends. Dividend-paying stocks act, in Siegel's words, as "bear-market protectors" and "return accelerators." When dividends get reinvested, they purchase more and more shares at lower prices during a bear market. These extra shares act as a bear-market protector. Then, when share prices reverse, the extra shares act as a return accelerator and rocket total returns higher.

Siegel also found some other common characteristics of Altria and these 20 corporate El Dorados. The most important is the ability to deliver greater-than-expected earnings growth on a consistent basis. Carrying an average price-to-earnings ratio slightly above the market average, these companies weren't exactly cheap on a traditional basis. But throughout the years, they always seemed to deliver a bit more than the market expected.

Source: Motley Fool

Related Articles:

• 12 Confident and Secure Companies Boosting Dividends
• List of 195 Dividend Stocks Every Income Investor Should Know About
• T. Rowe Price Group Inc. (TROW) Dividend Stock Analysis
• 10 Dividend Stocks With With A 10%+ Dividend Growth Rate
• Why Dividend Stocks Are Evil