For two years, financial commentators have been predicting that interest rates will rise and that dividend stocks will suffer the consequences.
Instead, rates have stayed steady or declined, and dividend stocks have continued their ascent.
"Over the past 12 months, dividend yield as a style has outperformed in all markets apart from Japan,"
Credit Suisse analysts wrote in a commentary obtained by CNBC.
"In the euro area, U.K. and U.S., dividend indices outperformed their wider markets by 3.8 percent, 5.6 percent and 3.1 percent, respectively."
The analysts listed several reasons to own dividend stocks: low bond yields, reasonable valuations, strong inflows to high-dividend mutual and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), buoyant earnings and the likelihood that European companies in particular will devote more of their cash to dividends than their U.S. counterparts.
If you want to invest in dividend stocks through ETFs, Jeff Cox of CNBC suggests looking at WisdomTree MidCap Dividend Fund, Vanguard High Dividend Yield Index Fund ETF Shares, SPDR S&P Dividend ETF, Powershares Dividend Achiever Portfolio and iShares Core High Dividend ETF.
Meanwhile, Bill Spetrino, editor of the Newsmax newsletter "The Dividend Machine," offered a couple stock picks to
Newsmax TV — Apple and tobacco goliath Philip Morris.
Apple has soared 9.9 percent over the past four days to $119.94. "I have a buying price up to $120,"
Spetrino told the network's "MidPoint" show.
As for Philip Morris, Spetrino, author of "The Great American Dividend Machine: How an Outsider Became the Undisputed Champ of Wall Street," likes its 4.9 percent dividend.
"There have been currency headwinds, but tobacco is something that is a great hedge against the dollar. Everybody wants to hedge the dollar with coal. Philip Morris will more than beat that," he said.
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