The question with generous dividend payers is, how high is too high?

Investment theme parties have a way of fizzling, however, and investing in dividend payers may be no different.

This year, even as their fellow dividend payers have rallied, the Dogs have been sound asleep, losing an average of 4.4 percent.

In that year alone, companies that did not pay dividends fell 5.4 percent, but dividend payers lost much less, just 0.1 percent, on average.

"It is consistently among the strongest dividend payers," he said.

A guaranteed return isn't the only reason to invest in dividend payers.

On average, dividend payers won the February race in the consumer staples sector through Thursday.

Since 1972, the dividend payers returned 8.92 percent on average, compared with 1.83 percent for nondividend stocks.

Many of the steadiest dividend payers have been paying for decades.

Financial companies, once the highest dividend payers by far, inched up last year after a steep decline.