Without a doubt, our annual list of Top 10 Stocks is one of our most popular pieces of research to date.

#-ad_banner-#This list has helped investors beat the overall market eight times since 2003. For comparison, shares of Warren Buffett’s holding company Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. (NYSE: BRK-B), beat the market only five times during the same period.

As history has shown, our system works. And in today’s article, I’ll tell you why it works and give you all the details on one of my favorite “Top 10 Stocks For 2015.”

Before I continue, I need to be upfront about something.

I can’t provide you the entire list of Top 10 Stocks For 2015 here. I’ve reserved the report exclusively for my Top 10 Stocks advisory members, and it wouldn’t be fair to give the full list away to everyone.

But what I can give you is something far more valuable than just a couple of stock picks.

I will show you why these stocks made my list for 2015. That way you can find similar stocks on your own.

Since 2003, our annual list of Top 10 Stocks has helped readers earn phenomenal gains. For example, in 2008 — a year marked by one of the worst market sell-offs in history — we made 46% with shares of Panera Bread Co. (Nasdaq: PNRA).

And in 2010, we selected not one, but two stocks that gained more than 100% for the year — Skyworks Solutions, Inc. (Nasdaq: SWKS), which shot up 102% and Silver Wheaton Corp. (NYSE: SLW), which skyrocketed 160%.

Last year, our picks outpaced the S&P 500 by around 70%, including an individual gain from MPLX LP (NYSE: MPLX) of 71.6%.

Here’s a sample of a few of the big winners we’ve seen over the years.

So how do we hone in on so many market-beating investments year in and year out?

It’s simple. After years of research, we’ve found that more often than not, companies with a few basic characteristics consistently outperform the overall market.

Here’s what we look for:

Irreplaceable Assets
What do things like pipelines, hydroelectric dams and utility services all have in common? They are all all irreplaceable. Another company can’t simply come along and build a competing business. These assets aren’t about to be replaced by some new technology.

When you find companies that own irreplaceable assets, they often end up being some of the most lucrative investments to own for the long term. For example, one of our Top 10 Stocks For 2015 owns more than 51,000 miles of oil and natural gas pipelines and many of its facilities are located in places where other companies simply can’t get permission to go.

That’s a big reason it’s been able to increase its net income by 150% over the past four years and have its share price soar 440% in the last five years.

Customer Loyalty
The ability to retain a loyal customer base and keep them buying your products for years is a hallmark of the world’s best businesses.

Firms that can lock in a loyal base generate strong free cash flows and superior profit margins, putting them in a better position to return money to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks.

For example, one of the companies on our list was listed by Forbes as one of “The World’s Most Valuable Brands.” Millions of consumers around the world rely on its products every single day.

That’s helped the company boost its revenues for five consecutive years, with no signs of slowing down.

Enormous Shareholder Yields
There’s a unique metric that the majority of investors aren’t familiar with, but we believe it’s one of the most profitable. We call it “shareholder yield.”

To find shareholder yield, you add together three things: the dividends a company pays, its share buybacks and the debt it pays down. In other words, shareholder yield gives you a real picture of how much cash a company is returning to its owners.

Taken together, dividends, buybacks and debt reduction produce much better yields than you’ll see listed on Yahoo! Finance and Morningstar. Research shows that companies with the highest shareholder yields tend to outperform the broader market.

Take a firm like Cisco Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) for example. Cisco is one of the select companies to make our list of the Top 10 Stocks For 2015.

The company designs and manufactures networking materials that allow users around the world to connect to the Internet. And it’s no surprise the firm is one of the more shareholder-friendly companies on the planet.

Last year Cisco shelled out $3.8 billion in dividends to its investors and bought back $9.5 billion of its own stock. But don’t expect those massive payouts to slow down anytime soon — the firm is still sitting on a massive $52 billion cash stockpile.

The company’s recent performance has been amazing. Between 2009 and 2014, Cisco saw annual revenue growth of 11% each year — up to $47 billion in 2014. Its gross margins have soared more than 200% since 2008.

Without question, this staggering growth, coupled with the firm’s shareholder-friendly policies, make Cisco one of the most attractive investments going into 2015.

But it’s not the only exciting opportunity we’ve found — far from it.

Another company we think could crush the market in 2015 owns a portfolio of some of the world’s top-selling brands. And thanks to the massive appeal of its products, some of the world’s most famous and well-connected investors — like legendary investing guru George Soros — are loading up on shares.

To learn all about this company — and get its name and ticker symbol — you can access my brand new report on The Top 10 Stocks For 2015. You’ll also be able to gain access to the full list of stocks we’ve selected for 2015. Just click here.