by Ian Cooper

Every year, one of the best strategies is the Dogs of the Dow.

You simply buy a basket of underperformers on the Dow that pay dividends, and sell by the end of the year. While the 2024 Dogs of the Dow didn’t do so well, you still had the opportunity to collect respectable yields along the way.

Plus, in most years, the Dogs do pretty well.

When momentum gets exhausted, this pattern pays out. To recognize the signs, click here.

The 2024 Dogs of the Dow did underperform the major indices in 2024. However, with dividends, investors still did well for the year.

The 2023 Dogs of the Dow returned an average of 10.1%, which came in below the 14.4% return on the Dow Jones’ Industrials. Still, with the appreciation in most of the 2023 Dogs coupled with dividends, investors still did well overall.

The 2022 Dogs of the Dow beat the major indices, even in a rough year.

In fact, while the Dogs of the Dow stocks fell 1.6% on the year, once you add in the dividend payouts, the Dogs returned 2% on the year. And while 2% may not sound like a big win, consider that, in 2022, one of the worst years on record since 2008, the NASDAQ lost 33%. The S&P 500 lost 19%. The Dow Jones lost about 9%.

In 2021, the Dogs of the Dow returned about 16.3%. While 2020 wasn’t a great year for the Dogs, most other years have done very well. In 2019, the Dogs were up 20%.  In 2018, they were up about 1%, but still beat the Dow, which fell close to 6%. In 2017, the dogs were up 19%. In 2016, they were up 16%.

For 2025, here’s how the Dogs are doing.

  • Verizon (VZ), which yields 6.3%, started the year at around $38. It’s. now up to $43.08.
  • Chevron (CVX), which yields 4.4%, ran from about $142 to $155 so far.
  • Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), which yields 3.07%, ran from $142 to $169.56.
  • Amgen (AMGN), which yields 3.09%, ran from about $258 to $308.55.
  • Merck (MRK), which yields 3.85%, slipped from about $98 to $83.40.
  • Coca-Cola (KO), which yields 2.95%, jumped from $61 to $69.10 so far.
  • IBM (IBM), which yields 2.58%, ran from about $215 to a high of $290.
  • Cisco (CSCO), which yields 2.4%, ran from about $58 to $68.30.
  • McDonald’s (MCD), which yields 2.4%, ran from about $293 to $294.50 so far.
  • Procter & Gamble (PG), which yields 2.66%, fell from about $264 to $158.81.

Eight out of 10 isn’t bad at all. Not only investors make a good deal of money year to date from the stocks, but they also made good money from the dividends so far.