With technology-driven growth stocks propelling the S&P 500 to new heights, dividend stocks have often found themselves playing catch-up.Yet, even in this market environment, some dividend-paying companies have managed not only to keep pace, but also beat the index by a significant margin.Specifically, while the S&P 500 has registered returns of about 27% over the past year, the following three dividend stocks have delivered annual total returns exceeding 30%.More importantly, these three stocks maintain eq ...