Amazon stockholders have enjoyed a return of more than 50% over the past year, but perhaps "return" is the wrong word. The company didn't actually return any of its profit to its stockholders. Rather, investors simply chased Amazon share price higher.

That distinction is less significant for someone who bought low and is selling today, but for long-term holders, there's an important difference. As the recent recession showed, price gains can disappear fast when the economy hits a rough patch. Dividends are sometimes eliminated here or reduced there, but mostly they continue rolling in. The long history of stock returns shows that steady dividends matter more than dramatic price changes. In a 2002 study published in Financial Analysts Journal, money managers Robert Arnott and Peter Bernstein showed that $100 invested in U.S. shares in 1802 grew over the next two centuries to $37 million after inflation if dividends were reinvested, but just $2,099 if dividends were spent.

If the economy sours again, investors will be glad for shares that literally return something to their owners. The three companies below have dividend yields of greater than 3%, but over the past year have paid much more. They're in the habit of spending generously on share repurchases, which reduce the share count and increase earnings per share, thereby making remaining shares more attractive. Add money spent on buybacks to what these companies spend on dividends, and the result is a "net payout" yield of greater than 8%.

For example, Philip Morris International (PM) spent $5.6 billion, or 5.9% of its stock market value, to repurchase shares over the past four quarters. Add that to the firm s 4.5% dividend yield and the result is a net payout yield of 10.4%.

Two caveats: Share repurchases are valuable to investors, but they don't actually put cash in anyone's pockets, so those living on investment income should consider whether dividend yields alone on these stocks are high enough (unless they wish to periodically sell shares). Second, although companies usually state their dividend rates ahead of time, they spend on repurchases according to their cash flow. The recent recession showed that in a severe crunch, dividends prove much stickier than repurchases. From peak to trough over the past three years, dividend spending for S&P 500 companies declined 17%, mostly because of cuts at a handful of giant banks that weigh heavily in the index. Repurchase spending, however, plunged by more than 85%. So consider dividends the dependable portion of the yields below, and repurchases a welcome extra.

Philip Morris International

Dividend yield: 4.5%
Net payout yield: 10.4%

Philip Morris International sells cigarettes under dominant brands like Marlboro, Parliament and Virginia Slims. The firm was spun off in 2008 from Altria, a company that in 2003 changed its name from Philip Morris. Confusing? The result is that Altria is an ultra-cheap tobacco stock with a giant dividend yield, plenty of lawsuit exposure and meager sales growth, while Philip Morris International is a fairly cheap tobacco stock with a large-but-not-quite-as-large yield, little lawsuit exposure and healthy (for investors, anyhow) sales growth. Sales in the company's most recent quarter increased 15% on an 8% rise in volume. Smokers in Asia pulled more than their share; sales there jumped 35%.

Raytheon

Dividend yield: 3.4%
Net payout yield: 10.0%

When defense contractor Raytheon reported second-quarter financial results a month ago, Jefferies & Company, an investment bank, compared the performance somewhat awkwardly in a note to clients to "a roadside IED." Improvised explosive devices are homemade bombs used against U.S. troops by their enemies in Iraq and Afghanistan. Raytheon encountered something decidedly less deadly: the loss of a contract with the U.K. Border Agency, resulting in a one-time charge to earnings, pulling them well below Wall Street forecasts. With budgets strained, the U.S. and its allies are applying fresh scrutiny to their defense spending, which is making the task of selling weapons more costly and less predictable, analysts say. Raytheon is expected to grow its sales by percentages in only the low single digits over the next few years. Shares, however, seem adequately discounted at just 10 times earnings.

Sara Lee

Dividend yield: 3.0%
Net payout yield: 8.3%

Sara Lee, which sells Ball Park franks, Sunbeam bread and many other packaged foods, has long been less profitable than its peers. Over the past year, the company has turned 9 cents of each sales dollar into operating profit, versus 14 cents for Kraft and 15 cents for Heinz (HNZ). With commodity costs rising and grocery aisle competition fierce, this isn't an easy year for management to make improvements, but it has cut corporate overhead and plans to gradually increase the dividend payment and spend aggressively on share repurchases. Recently announced plans call for buyback spending of $1 billion to $1.5 billion by June 2011, including $500 million to $800 million by the year's end. Sara Lee is small for a packaged food company, with a stock market value of just $9.6 billion, so its net payout yield over the next year could equal 13% to 19%.