This Millennium's 10 Best Dividend Stocks
Published Wed, 24 Aug 2011 on The Motley Fool

By examining the top performers of the last 11 years, I want to find traits that the top performers of the 2010s should also have. I sought stocks with a market cap greater than $1 billion and steady annual dividend payments, and I excluded royalty trusts or master limited partnerships, which are taxed differently. Here's what I found:
Rank Company Name Return Since Millennium Current Yield
1 HollyFrontier (NYSE: HFC) 5,016.3% 0.9%
2 Raven Industries (Nasdaq: RAVN) 2,815.6% 1.4%
3 Precision Castparts (PCP) 2,260.9% 0.1%
4 Southern Copper (NYSE: SCCO) 2,252.6% 8%
5 Lufkin Industries (Nasdaq: LUFK) 2,119.3% 0.8%
6 PotashCorp (NYSE: POT) 2,060.5% 0.5%
7 Cliffs Natural Resources (NYSE: CLF) 2,056.3% 1.5%
8 World Fuel Services (NYSE: INT) 1,973% 0.4%
9 Valhi (NYSE: VHI) 1,450.1% 1%
10 Cabot Oil & Gas (NYSE: COG) 1,285.9% 0.2%
Source: Capital IQ, a division of Standard and Poor's. Return from Dec. 31, 1999-Aug. 23, 2011. HollyFrontier was the top dividend stock of the millennium so far, with a return of 5,016.3%. So what do all these stocks have in common?... Read more