3 Dividend Growth Stocks I Have Been Buying at Any Price

It would take some serious lobbying and incredibly persuasive testimony to Congress by Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes if the company attempted to pull off anything close to what Rogers Communications (RCI) has going for it in Canada. I hammer this theme home because what Rogers (and BCE (BCE)) does north of the border stands pretty much without precedent. And most American investors ignore the situation.

I provide a pretty thorough rundown of Rogers' (and BCE's) domination in the following articles on TheStreet: Two Stocks to Buy Before They Take Over Canada (May 3, 2012) and Why I Am Long Rogers and Bell (April 13, 2012).

As stocks, TWX and RCI have shared experiences over the last three months. RCI is down nearly 12%, thanks in part to a somewhat weak quarterly earnings report. And TWX has dropped almost 5%. RCI's dividend produces a stronger yield than TWX at 4.4%.

In any event, the dividends (which I reinvest) and the ability to write covered calls just add to the allure of accumulating these hybrid value/growth plays while they're down.

Verizon Communications (VZ) yields more than TWX and RCI at 4.7%, plus it has been on a serious bull run. Over the last three months, VZ has returned north of 9% and hit multiple new 52-week highs, including Tuesday's intraday peak of $42.95.

As Cramer noted the other night on his Mad Money program, why would you waste your time on a stock like Frontier Communications (FTR) when you can own VZ? Ultimately, it comes down to being a sucker for yield.

Picking FTR over VZ boggles my mind as well. Do the math over the last year. It takes less than five minutes and it can spare you from a world of hurt.

Despite FTR's massive dividend yield (11.6%), it still gets crushed performance-wise by VZ. If you bought 100 shares of FTR one year ago it cost you roughly $7.87 per share. That's a $787 investment. Today, with FTR trading at about $3.67, you have $367 before dividend payments for a loss of 53.4%.

We'll be generous and give you all four dividend payments over the last year (two at 18.8 cents a share and two at 10 cents a share). You would have collected $57.60, offsetting just a fraction of your loss. The dividend turns your 53.4% hit into a 46.0% loss.

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