High-Paying Dividend Finance Stocks Favored by Smart Money

#3 Metlife Inc (NYSE:MET)

– Annual Dividend: $1.60

– Dividend Yield: 3.70%

Although the popularity of Metlife Inc (NYSE:MET) cooled down a bit during the second quarter, it is still a popular dividend financial stock. At the end of June, Metlife could be found in the portfolios of 45 of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, down from 50 at the end of March. Among these funds, Ric Dillon‘s Diamond Hill Capital held the largest position on June 30, at 7.35 million shares valued at $293 million. Continuous low interest rates are a big burden for insurance companies, as they rely heavily on income from their investment portfolios. What makes Metlife Inc (NYSE:MET) attractive is that it has small capital expenditures and a solid free cash flow stream. In 2015, free cash flow amounted to $14.1 billion, while its dividend expenditures totaled just $1.8 billion. The company has been actively expanding overseas and is well positioned to benefit from growth in emerging markets.

#2 NorthStar Asset Management Group Inc (NYSE:NSAM)

– Annual Dividend: $0.40

– Dividend Yield: 3.16%

At the end of the second quarter, roughly 43% of NorthStar Asset Management Group Inc (NYSE:NSAM)’s common stock was held by 48 of the hedge funds in our database, the latter figure being down from 53 registered a quarter prior. David Abrams is very optimistic about the prospects of this company, having boosted his fund’s stake in it by 38% during the quarter to 10.9 million shares worth $111 million. For its most recent quarter, NorthStar Asset Management Group Inc (NYSE:NSAM) posted a profit of $0.28 per share on the back of $97.1 million in revenue, in-line with analysts’ projections. The stock finished Friday’s trading session up by 5.7% year-to-date. In early-June, the company announced a merger with Colony Capital Inc (NYSE:CLNY) and Northstar Realty Finance Corp (NYSE:NRF) to form a real estate investment trust (REIT) with $58 billion worth of assets under management. The new entity is expected to generate about $115 million in annual cost savings.

#1 Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC)

– Annual Dividend: $1.52

– Dividend Yield: 3.01%

The San Francisco-based banking giant is the number one dividend finance stock, with its yield barely cresting the 3% threshold that we set for this list, at 3.01%. 88 of the funds we follow disclosed holding a long position in the stock at the end of June, down from 90 at the end of March. Together, these funds held approximately 12% of the company’s outstanding stock. The most famous supporter of Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC), Warren Buffett, is still holding on to this investment and is looking for ways to increase it. According to its latest 13F filing, Berkshire Hathaway held 479.7 million Wells Fargo shares at the end of June, worth $22.7 billion. Since the stake amounts to roughly 10% of the company’s common stock, Berkshire is required to request approval from the Federal Reserve to further increase its holding. In the beginning of July, the fund said that it had indeed made just such a formal request, stating that it does not plan to pursue any merger deals or interfere with the current strategy or corporate structure. “We value Berkshire Hathaway as a long-term shareholder and customer, and we appreciate the confidence that Berkshire’s executive team has shown in Wells Fargo,” Ancel Martinez, a spokesman for Wells Fargo wrote in an email, as reported by Reuters.

Disclosure: None