The average dividend mutual fund has outperformed the S&P 500 in the past 15 years. Their holdings pay out significant portions of earnings, which can help limit their stocks’ decline during bear markets. Thus the average dividend mutual fund would have turned an investment of $10,000 on March 31, 2000, into $25,515 by May 19 this year, according to Morningstar Inc. data. The S&P 500 would have turned the same investment into $18,989.