Dogs of the Dow 2017

Dividend stocks offer current income and growth potential, and the dividend stocks that you'll find among the 30 stocks of the Dow Jones Industrials are some of the best-known, highest-quality dividend payers you'll find. 

Rather than simply buying the entire Dow, however, many dividend investors choose instead to follow a strategy called the Dogs of the Dow. 

These stocks offer better yields than the Dow as a whole, and often, they've been able to outperform the Dow over the course of the year. Let's take a first look at 2017's Dogs of the Dow to see what you should watch out for over the coming year.

The "Dogs of the Dow" are the highest-yielding components at the start of any given year. In the past sixteen years, the Dogs of the Dow have returned an average of 7.9%. 

This is above that of the overall Dow, which has returned a more meager 6.3% average return. The Dow stocks gained an exceptional 18.7% last year, with Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT), Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), and JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) leading the charge. 

Here are the Dogs of the Dow for 2017 with yield...