Dividend income is often overlooked amid gyrations in the stock market. Consider that in 2024, market bulls were boasting about 24%-plus S&P 500 returns. No one was very focused on the broad market index's 1.2% dividend yield. But dividends are an important element of return, and 2025 for a while was bearing that out. Through May, the S&P 500 was up a thin 1.1%; without dividends, there was essentially no returns at all. Of note, dividend income accounted for 42% of the total return of the S&P 500 between 1930 and 2012, according to Hartford Funds. And that's just the average. In some of those decades, dividends accounted for more than 50% of total returns and even 100%. More recently, dividends have accounted for a smaller portion of returns, at around 15%-20%. But not all dividends are created equal, though, and it is important to understand the difference between the two main investment categories: high-yield stocks and dividend-growth stocks.

Atmos Energy is the largest publicly traded, fully regulated, pure-play natural gas utility in the United States, serving more than 3.3 million customers in Texas, Colorado, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Virginia. About two thirds of its earnings come from Texas, where it distributes natural gas in northern Texas and owns an intrastate gas pipeline spanning several key shale gas formations and interconnected with five storage facilities.

Atmos Energy is the largest publicly traded, fully regulated, pure-play natural gas utility in the United States, serving more than 3.3 million customers in Texas, Colorado, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Virginia. About two thirds of its earnings come from Texas, where it distributes natural gas in northern Texas and owns an intrastate gas pipeline spanning several key shale gas formations and interconnected with five storage facilities.

Atmos Energy is the largest publicly traded, fully regulated, pure-play natural gas utility in the United States, serving more than 3.3 million customers in Texas, Colorado, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Virginia. About two thirds of its earnings come from Texas, where it distributes natural gas in northern Texas and owns an intrastate gas pipeline spanning several key shale gas formations and interconnected with five storage facilities.