General Electric Company (GE), AT&T Inc. (T), Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) And The Rest Of Adage Capital Management’s +3.5% Yielders

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) was another of Adage’s high yield picks- quite a high yield pick, in fact, with recent dividend payments implying a current yield of 4.7%. At a beta of 0.4, AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)also meets the criteria for a defensive stock as well as being an interesting prospect for income investors. In terms of value, the stock is dependent on a stronger 2014 though analyst consensus for that year implies a reasonable forward earnings multiple of 14. Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management was another major shareholder of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) according to that fund’s own 13F (check out Asness’s stock picks).

Gross, Atchinson, and their team moved heavily into Raytheon (NYSE:RTN) between October and December, and had 4.2 million shares in their portfolio. Investors have been concerned about Raytheon potentially seeing less business due to cuts in U.S. military spending, and the stock now trades at 10 times earnings whether we consider trailing results or forecasts for 2014. The dividend yield is nearly 4%, though net income has already been slipping. Raytheon was one of value investor Joel Greenblatt’s largest holdings at the end of 2012 (see more stocks Greenblatt likes).

Adage included Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) as well as AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) in its portfolio, reporting a position of 3.9 million shares. Similarly to that peer, there is a high yield here- 3.9%- and Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) has little connection to the broader economy with a beta of 0.3. We would note that Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) may be in the process of buying the remainder of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) from Vodafone Group Plc (ADR) (NYSE:VOD), and so investors should be prepared for any effects of a transaction on Verizon’s stock price. Renaissance Technologies, founded by billionaire Jim Simons, owned 2.3 million shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) after buying shares during Q4.

Disclosure: I own no shares of any stocks mentioned in this article.