Five Dividend Aristocrats Hedge Funds Are Bullish On

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA) saw the number of funds with long positions in its stock drop to 78 from 91 during the fourth quarter. The aggregate value of their holdings also slipped to $6.90 billion from $9.51 billion and was equal to 7.40% of the company’s outstanding stock. Among the funds that remain bullish on Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA) is billionaire Andreas Halvorsen‘s Viking Global, which owns 12.77 million shares, followed by Barry Rosenstein’s JANA Partners and Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital, with 12.30 million shares and 6.79 million shares, respectively. Walgreen Company, which merged with the Switzerland-based Boots Alliance at the end of 2014, had been on the dividend aristocrats list and maintained that standing as a newly-merged company last year, raising its dividend to $0.36 from $0.34, with the stock currently sporting a yield of 1.81%. To further expand its presence on the drug retail market, Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA) is currently in the process of acquiring Rite Aid Corporation (NYSE:RAD) for $9.00 per share. Last month the shareholders of Rite Aid voted in favor of the merger, which is expected to be completed in the second half of the current year.

In Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), 74 funds from our database reported long positions as of the end of December, versus 74 funds a quarter earlier. However, the total value of their holdings went up to $4.16 billion from $3.93 billion, boosted by a 10% growth registered by the stock. The slight decline in the popularity of the stock among smart money investors came amid turmoil in the healthcare sector, but the top shareholders remained committed to the company. Among them, billionaire Ken Fisher‘s Fisher Asset Management inched up its position by 2% to 10.82 million shares, while Donald Yacktman’s Yacktman Asset Management trimmed its exposure by 4% to 7.32 million shares during the fourth quarter. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) currently pays a dividend of $0.75 per share and its stock sports a yield of 2.82%, which is the second-highest among healthcare dividend aristocrats, trailing only AbbVie. For the fourth-quarter, Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) posted adjusted EPS of $1.44, above the $1.42 expected by analysts, while its revenue of $17.81 billion was below the estimates of $17.88 billion. The company’s sales also fell by 2.4% on the year on the back of a stronger dollar, which it is hoping to counteract through a plan to reduce costs, in order to keep profits.