The "Dogs of the Dow" theory involves buying equal amounts of the 10 Dow stocks that had the highest dividend-to-price ratio during the previous full year. It has become a popular investing strategy thanks to its simplicity, and for the first three months of 2014, the best of the Dogs have outperformed the S&P 500. But not everyone thinks it's a Best of Breed technique.

Drawbacks Among the Mangy Curs

First, let's clarify this strategy. Plenty of stocks pay dividends -- money you get just for owning them on payout days. If the dividend amounts to a relatively high percentage of the stock price, that's an indicator that the shares may be undervalued -- and thus poised to rise.

This year, the 10 are AT&T (T), Chevron (CVX), Cisco Systems (CSCO), General Electric (GE), Intel (INTC), McDonald's (MCD), Merck (MRK), Microsoft (MSFT), Pfizer (PFE) and Verizon (VZ).

Read the full post at Daily Finance.