The Most Generous Dividend-Payers In The Market

Dividend stocks have gotten incredibly popular among investors as the search for income has led many to take on more risk in their portfolios in order to generate the cash flow they need from their investments. With the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC ) once again at new highs, another draw of dividend stocks is that historically, they've tended to perform better than the overall market during pullbacks, making more conservative investors feel more comfortable with dividend payers.

But some companies are more generous with dividends than others. Let's take a look at the 15 blue-chip companies that have paid more than $5 billion in dividends to their shareholders over the past 12 months, according to the latest figures from S&P Capital IQ: ExxonMobil (XOM) $10.43 billion, AT&T (T) $10.14 billion, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) $7.47 billion, General Electric (GE) $7.21 billion and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) $7.21 billion.

Source: Motley Fool

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