Exploring 2019's Top Dividend Stocks: Which Investment Leaders Stood Out?

The calendar turning to 2020 marked an excellent moment to reflect on the previous year’s market performance. For dividend-focused investors, 2019 proved particularly rewarding. In this review, we’ll examine which top dividend stocks delivered exceptional returns, and more importantly, what patterns they reveal about successful dividend investing. Understanding what made these stocks perform can offer valuable insights for selecting high-yield equities going forward.

A Banner Year for Dividend Stocks in 2019

To identify the most impressive performers, analysts looked at large-cap companies—those with market capitalizations exceeding $10 billion—that maintained dividend yields of at least 3% as of year-end 2019. When ranked by their 2019 returns, a fascinating picture emerged of which sectors and companies captured investor attention.

The data tells a compelling story. While the broader S&P 500 delivered 31.5% returns for 2019, the top dividend stocks significantly outpaced this benchmark. The clear winner was The Carlyle Group, which surged 117% for the year, followed closely by Apollo Global Management at 107%. The Blackstone Group rounded out the top three with a 96.3% return. These figures demonstrate that dividend-paying equities weren’t relegated to slow, steady performers—they could be explosive growth engines when conditions aligned.

What’s particularly notable is that nine of the top ten performers remained profitable on a trailing-twelve-month basis, with Western Digital serving as the only exception. This profitability streak underscores the quality of these holdings, though it’s worth noting that Western Digital’s 77.1% return still ranked fourth on the list.

Investment Management Giants Dominate the Top Positions

The most striking finding was the dominance of investment management firms at the upper echelon of this ranking. The Carlyle Group, Apollo Global Management, and The Blackstone Group collectively captured the top three positions, reflecting the sector’s exceptional 2019 performance.

These aren’t boutique operations—each manages assets across multiple classes including private equity, real assets, and credit instruments. Their investor base spans wealthy individuals, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, university endowments, and corporate treasuries. At the close of Q3 2019, their scale was impressive: Carlyle managed $222 billion in assets, Apollo oversaw $323 billion, and Blackstone commanded $554 billion—a remarkable 21% year-over-year surge.

Wall Street’s outlook for these firms remains constructive. Analysts project all three will deliver solid earnings expansion over the next half-decade. Carlyle is expected to lead this cohort with anticipated annual earnings growth averaging 15.8%, while Apollo is forecasted at 11.4% and Blackstone at 13.9%. This growth trajectory suggests the market viewed 2019 not as a one-off spike but as the beginning of a sustainable expansion phase for the investment management industry.

Technology Companies: From Storage to Telecommunications

The technology sector claimed three positions in the top ten, reflecting how well tech-oriented dividend stocks performed that year. Western Digital and Seagate Technology occupied consecutive slots—fourth and fifth, respectively—demonstrating the strength of the data storage industry.

Both companies operate within the hard disk drive (HDD) market, where they maintain commanding positions. Western Digital manufactures data storage devices, systems, and solutions serving both corporate and consumer segments. Its portfolio includes the Western Digital, G-Technology, SanDisk, Upthere, and WD brands. Seagate competes in similar territory, and together these two firms essentially define the HDD sector.

Interestingly, the sixth-place finisher brought geographic diversity to the tech contingent: Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), Russia’s premier telecommunications operator and digital services provider. The company’s 61.2% 2019 return reflected sector strength, though its 8.7% dividend yield—substantially higher than peers—came with corresponding risk. MTS investors seeking generous current income must accept volatility; the stock’s decade-long 2010-2019 return of just 1.9% underscores this tension between annual payouts and long-term appreciation.

Energy Infrastructure: Pipeline Growth and MLPs

The rising energy prices that characterized much of 2019 benefited two infrastructure-focused energy plays that made this year’s top dividend stocks list.

TC Energy (ranked seventh, up 56.3%) operates an extensive network of natural gas and crude oil pipelines, storage facilities, and nuclear power generation across Canada, the United States, and Mexico. The company has demonstrated commitment to shareholders through nineteen consecutive years of dividend increases—a track record suggesting management confidence in its cash generation capabilities.

Phillips 66 Partners rounds out the energy contingent at number eight with a 56.2% return. This is a master limited partnership (MLP) structure formed by Phillips 66 specifically to “own, operate, develop, and acquire primarily fee-based crude oil, refined petroleum product and natural gas liquids pipelines and terminals and other transportation and midstream assets.” The MLP structure attracts income-focused investors, and its 5.6% dividend yield reflects the stable, fee-based revenue model underlying these energy infrastructure assets.

The Utility Sector’s Steady Dividend Performers

Rounding out the top ten are two representatives from the utility sector—a category synonymous with dividend investing for many investors. Utilities as a group overwhelmingly distribute earnings to shareholders, making them natural homes for yield seekers.

The Southern Company, positioned ninth with a 51.7% return, represents one of America’s five largest utilities by market capitalization. This sprawling enterprise operates electric utilities across three southern states, natural gas utilities in four states, a wholesale power generation subsidiary, distributed energy infrastructure, fiber optics networks, and telecommunications services. Like TC Energy, Southern Company has raised its dividend for nineteen consecutive years, signaling management’s confidence in future cash flows.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (tenth position, 51.4% return) operates globally as one of the world’s largest owners and operators of critical infrastructure networks. These assets “facilitate the movement and storage of energy, water, freight, passengers and data”—essential services with stable, long-term demand characteristics. Brookfield has increased its dividend for twelve consecutive years, though its shorter track record still demonstrates serious commitment to shareholder returns.

Key Takeaways for Dividend Investors

The composition of 2019’s top dividend stocks reveals several patterns worth considering. The year’s market conditions favored sectors with strong asset bases and growing revenues—investment management, energy infrastructure, and utilities. These weren’t speculative bets but established franchises with pricing power. Meanwhile, the diversity across these sectors—from telecom to storage to energy—suggests that dividend investing offers sector diversification opportunities beyond the conventional utility focus.

For investors building dividend portfolios, examining what made these top dividend stocks succeed in 2019 provides a useful reference point. The combination of stable cash generation, strategic positioning in their respective industries, and management teams committed to consistent dividend growth created the conditions for exceptional returns that year.