5 Best Blue Chip Dividend Stocks Hedge Funds Are Buying

2. Visa Inc. (NYSE: V)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 164
Dividend Yield: 0.52%
Number of Years of Consistent Dividend Growth: 13

Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) is a data processing and outsourced services company operating in the information technology sector to provide payments technology across the world. The company facilitates digital payments for its consumers, and any merchants, financial institutions, businesses, strategic partners, and government entities that use its services. It ranks 2nd on our list of the best blue chip dividend stocks hedge funds are buying.

This July, Evercore ISI added Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) to its Tactical Outperform List, while Baird has also raised its price target on the company’s shares from $282 to $305.

In the fiscal second quarter of 2021, Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) had an EPS of $1.38, beating estimates by $0.11. The company’s revenue was $5.73 billion, also beating estimates by $175.03 million. Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) has gained 22.02% in the past 6 months and 12.96% year to date.

By the end of the first quarter of 2021, 164 hedge funds out of the 866 tracked by Insider Monkey held stakes in Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) worth roughly $26.5 billion. This is compared to 166 hedge funds in the previous quarter with stakes worth about $23.5 billion.

ClearBridge Investments, an investment management firm, mentioned Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) in its first-quarter 2021 investor letter. Here’s what they said:

“To make room for these new names with more attractive outlooks related to the reopening, we sold out of companies where the thesis is not playing out at the pace we expected including Visa.”