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Dogs of the Dow 2021

Moneyzine Editor
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Moneyzine Editor
2 mins
January 16th, 2024
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Dogs of the Dow 2021

It turned out to be a pretty good year for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, with the index rising nearly 10%. As we've done for the past fourteen years, the close of one year signals the time to announce the Dogs of the Dow for 2021.

Dogs of the Dow Performance

After experiencing a double-digit gain last year, the Dogs of the Dow ended 2020 with a 12.6% loss. Unfortunately, they underperformed both the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) as well as the S&P 500 Index.

In 2020, the S&P 500 finished the year with a 18.4% gain, the DJIA closed out the year with a gain of 7.2%, while the Dogs managed a double-digit loss, they were clearly outpaced by both indexes. Overall, the Dogs of the Dow Theory proved to be a winning investment strategy only three times in the last ten years (2011, 2016, and 2018).

Some of the bigger Dogs in 2020 include ExxonMobil (-54.8%), Walgreens (-32.4%), Chevron (-29.9%), and IBM (-6.1%) which are poor results for blue chip stocks given the overall market performance.

2021 Dogs of the Dow

It's only possible to announce the Dogs of the Dow after the last trading day of any given year. Fortunately, the criteria for choosing these new Dogs are simple:

The companies that make up the 2021 Dogs of the Dow appear in the following table:

Dogs of the Dow 2021

Stock Symbol

Company Name

2020 Close

Dividend Yield

CVX

Chevron

84.45

6.11%

IBM

IBM

125.88

5.18%

DOW

Dow

55.5

5.05%

WBA

Walgreens

39.88

4.69%

VZ

Verizon

58.75

4.27%

MMM

3M

174.79

3.36%

CSCO

Cisco

44.39

3.24%

MRK

Merck

81.8

3.18%

AMGN

Amgen

229.92

3.06%

KO

Coca-Cola

54.84

2.99%

Eight of the ten companies in this list - IBM, ExxonMobil, Verizon, Chevron, Cisco Systems, Walgreens, 3M and Coca-Cola were also dogs in 2020.

Dow Theories

The Dogs of the Dow Theory was first popularized by Michael O'Higgins in his book Beating the Dow, published back in 1992. Anyone interested in learning more about the assumptions behind this investing strategy, should read our complete article on Dogs of the Dow. That article explains more of the history behind this approach, including the steps to follow when investing in each of these companies. It also contains a list of the Dogs of the Dow for the last five years, as well as their historical performance over an nineteen-year timeframe.

Additional Resources

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    When investors talk about quality stocks, they'll often use the phrase "blue chip." Unfortunately, even seasoned market analysts can't agree on a definition of this term. But they do agree that blue chip stocks have some very desirable attributes.
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  • Dogs of the Dow
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