The Extraordinary Power of Questar's Dividends

I took my first investing class as a teenager, and one moment stands out in my memory. A fellow student asked the instructor, a stockbroker, about dividends.

"Dividends?" he asked. "I'm trying to make my clients wealthy. You don't do that waiting for tiny checks in the mailbox every quarter."

Even then, I had enough horse sense to know he was wrong. Paying attention to dividends is exactly how you become wealthy over time.

Wharton professor Jeremy Siegel shared a wonderful discovery in his book The Future for Investors. The greatest long-term returns typically don't come from the most innovative companies, or even companies with the highest earnings growth. They come from companies that happen to crank out dividends year after year. Simply put, since the 1950s, "the portfolios with higher dividend yields offered investors higher returns."

Market commentary regularly centers on price gyrations, yet dividends have historically accounted for more than half of total returns.

Reinvest those dividends, and the gains get even greater. Take Questar (NYS: STR) , for example. Since the late 1960s, the company's share price has increased 6,000%. But add in reinvested dividends, and total returns jump to 31,700%:

Source: Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's.

Source: Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's.

There's no ambiguity here: Over time, Questar's share appreciation alone has paled in importance to the power of its reinvested dividends. The results are similar for others such as ExxonMobil (NYS: XOM) and Chevron (NYS: CVX) ; reinvested dividends skew both companies' total returns dramatically higher. If you're a long-term shareholder, don't worry about daily share wobbles. Devote your attention those dividend payouts and your commitment to reinvest them.

And how do Questar's divi dends look? At 3.3%, its yield is far about the market average. The company has made 265 consecutive dividend payments, raising its payout in 38 out of 39 years -- an incredible track record. In a recent conference call, management reiterated its commitment to raising dividend payouts by 5% to 10% annually. Questar should deliver above-average dividend returns for years to come.

To earn the greatest returns, get your priorities straight. What the market does is less important than what your company earns. What your company earns is less important than how much it pays out in dividends. And what it pays out in dividends is less important than whether you reinvest those dividends.

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At the time thisarticle was published Fool contributorMorgan Houselowns shares of Exxon and Chevron. Follow him on Twitter, where he goes by@TMFHousel.Motley Fool newsletter serviceshave recommended buying shares of Chevron. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don't 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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