Dogs of the Dow fetch some fine bones for investors

By Dian Vujovich

As you know, I’m a fan of dogs. All sorts of dogs from  the four-legged  to three-legged, as well as corporate bow-wow’s and those found in the DJIA. And, as fate would have it, those in the latter group have had a “good dog” year—thus  far.

Looking at the 10 highest yielding stocks in the DJIA, aka, “The Dogs of the Dow”, results at the end of the third quarter 2012 showed  the year-to-date performance for the group was indeed something to howl about: The Dogs were up 16.16 percent (dividends reinvested), according to the Bespoke Investment Group.

Although that was  a few whiskers shy of the  performance of the S&P 500, it was up 16.43 percent over that same time frame, the Dogs seriously outperformed hedge funds. eVestmentHFN reported that  the average hedge fund was up only 5.1 percent for the year.

General Electric (GE) and A&T (T), both up more than 30 percent, were the two top performing Dogs. Intel (INTC), the one and only on down Dog.

Regarding yield, the most generous at the beginning of the year was  AT&T’s at a rewarding 5.82 percent.  Procter & Gamble offered the lowest yield  of the 10 Dogs at 3.15 percent. Both, however, were delightfully more than yields found on safe money choices, like savings or money market accounts.

Here’s  how each of the Dogs of the Dow ended the 3rd quarter of 2012:

-General Electric (GE), at $17.91, was up 30.47 percent

-AT&T (T), $30.24, up 30.29 percent

-Merck (MRK) $37.70, up  24.42 percent

-Pfizer (PFE), $21.64, up 19.52 percent

-Verizon (VZ), $40.12, g 18.66 percent

-Kraft (MDLZ) $37.36, up 17.20 percent

-El du Pont de Nemours (DD), $45.78, up 10.85 percent

-Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), $65.58, up 8.06 percent

-Procter & Gamble (PG), $66.71, up 5.72 percent

-Intel Corp. (INTC), $24.25, down 3.56 percent.

(Source: The Bespoke Investment Group)