Want to double your portfolio's returns? It's simple: Just focus on the stocks that are handing the most cash to investors.
No, I'm not necessarily talking about dividends here (although dividend payouts are definitely an important part of it). I'm talking about shareholder yield.
In a nutshell, shareholder yield is made up of anything that directly returns cash or equity to your portfolio. Yes, that includes obvious moves such as dividends, but it also includes share buybacks and paying down debt.
Any of those three corporate actions can unlock significant value for shareholders, and the data backs it up. According to research by James O'Shaughnessy, over a 40-year period, large-cap stocks with the highest shareholder yield delivered average gains of 18.05%. That's almost double the average annual returns that investing in the big S&P 500 index would have earned you.
With low interest rates and record levels of cash sitting on corporate balance sheets, management teams are looking for the most effective ways to return value to shareholders. It's not one size fits all, either. The best mix varies from company to company. But by looking at the trifecta of dividends, buybacks and debt extinguishment, you can be sure that you won't miss out on any of the proceeds.
With that in mind, here's a look at five stocks that have provided superior shareholder yield in the last year.
Hess
General Electric
NetApp
Pfizer

Activision Blizzard