5 Best Dividend Aristocrats to Buy According to Hedge Funds

In this article, we will be looking at the 5 best dividend aristocrats to buy according to hedge funds. If you want to see our detailed analysis of dividend aristocrats, and dividend investing, go directly to the 10 Best Dividend Aristocrats to Buy According to Hedge Funds.

5. S&P Global Inc. (NYSE: SPGI)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 66
Number of Years of Consecutive Dividend Increases: 48
Dividend Yield: 0.7%

S&P Global Inc. (NYSE: SPGI) is a company that provides analytics and ratings alongside other data for use by the capital and commodity markets across the world. The company operates through its S&P Global Ratings, S&P Global Market Intelligence, S&P Global Platts, and S&P Global Dow Jones Indices segments, and ranks 5th on our list of the best dividend aristocrats to buy according to hedge funds.

This July, RBC Capital’s Ashish Sabadra initiated coverage of S&P Global Inc. (NYSE: SPGI) shares with an Outperform rating and a $476 price target. Sabadra expects double-digit earnings growth from the company, alongside an acceleration in its normalized revenue growth profile, in light of S&P Global Inc. (NYSE: SPGI) acquiring IHS Markit.

In the first quarter of 2021, S&P Global Inc. (NYSE: SPGI) had an EPS of $3.39, beating estimates by $0.31. The company’s revenue was $2.02 billion, up 12.88% year over year and also beating estimates by $77.50 million. S&P Global Inc. (NYSE: SPGI) has gained about 32.92% in the past 6 months and 25.61% year to date as well.

By the end of the first quarter of 2021, 66 hedge funds out of the 866 tracked by Insider Monkey held stakes in S&P Global Inc. (NYSE: SPGI) worth roughly $6.24 billion. This is compared to 75 hedge funds in the previous quarter with stakes worth approximately $3.807 billion.

Baron Funds, an asset management firm, mentioned S&P Global Inc. (NYSE: SPGI) in its first-quarter 2021 investor letter. Here’s what they said:

“S&P Global Inc. provides credit ratings, indexes, data, and analytics to the financial and commodities markets. Shares increased on strong fourth quarter results and 2021 guidance that exceeded Street expectations. Although bond issuance is expected to moderate after two years of exceptional growth, management still expects revenue to grow mid-single-digits this year. Also, shareholders overwhelmingly voted to approve the merger with IHS Markit. We continue to own the stock as we see a long runway for growth and significant competitive advantages for the company.”