These 5 Stocks Give Over 15% Return To Shareholders

Now let's apply those lessons to 2017, and highlight five that should do even better (17%+ returns) this year (and likely beyond).

Remember, projecting our returns from any given stock is simple. We simply add together the three ways it can pay us:

Its current dividend. A future dividend hike. Share repurchases. It also helps if the stock is inexpensive, as buybacks deliver more bang for management's buck. So let's stick with stocks that are dirt-cheap, trading for 10-times free cash flow (FCF) or less for this exercise.

Here's an example of a stock ready to return 17% or more over the next year.