10 Best Defensive Dividend Stocks For 2025

5. The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 84

Dividend Yield as of November 6: 3.00%

The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) is one of the best dividend stocks to buy. On November 7, BofA maintained a Buy recommendation on KO and lifted the price target from $78 to $80. BofA observed that after Coca-Cola’s Q3 financial results were published on October 21, the company also disclosed its 10-Q, in addition to the 8 publicly listed Coke bottlers’ reports. This offers more transparency into Coca-Cola’s results, especially regarding sales volumes.

The research firm’s team works with 8 of Coca-Cola’s global publicly traded bottlers, and the insights using the bottlers’ reports and the company’s disclosures allow for better analysis of Coca-Cola’s financial performance. The upgraded $80 price target assumes a 25x multiple of Coca-Cola’s projected 2026 earnings.

In other developments, Coca-Cola director Levchin Max R disclosed that he acquired shares of the company worth $998,676 on October 23 and 24, 2025. Levchin purchased 2,864 KO shares on October 23 with a weighted average price of $69.8721, while another 4,197 shares were picked up at an average price of $70.3062. On October 24, the director bought 7,206 units at a weighted average price of $69.8706 per share. Levchin now holds 14,267 shares of Coca-Cola stock.