These dividend payers cranked up their payouts over the past decade, and they could do it again.Are you more interested in overall gains or generating a large stream of passive income? If you're not sure, I've got great news. It doesn't matter. Filling your portfolio with dividend payers is one of the most effective ways to outperform the overall stock market, according to over 50 years of historical data.Between 1973 and 2024, dividend-paying stocks in the benchmark S&P 500 index delivered a 9.2% average a ...