5 Best Dividend Leaders to Buy According to Hedge Funds

In this article, we discuss 5 best dividend leaders to buy according to hedge funds. If you want to see more stocks in this selection, check out 15 Best Dividend Leaders to Buy According to Hedge Funds. 

5. Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 63

Dividend Yield as of February 3: 4.95%

Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) operates as a tobacco company with a product portfolio that consists of cigarettes and smoke-free products, including heat-not-burn, vapor, and oral nicotine products. On January 12, Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) entered into a long-term collaboration with KT&G, a South Korean tobacco and nicotine manufacturer, to commercialize their smoke-free products worldwide on an exclusive basis. This builds on their three years of successful collaboration in which Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) has already commercialized KT&G’s products in over 30 markets. The agreement extends till January 29, 2038. It is one of the best dividend leaders to invest in. 

On February 2, Morgan Stanley analyst Pamela Kaufman raised the price target on Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) to $118 from $109 and kept an Overweight rating on the shares ahead of the company’s Q4 report. The analyst cited the positive impact of the Swedish Match acquisition and favorable foreign exchange impacts as reasons for the increase in 2023 estimates by approximately 9%.

According to Insider Monkey’s data, 63 hedge funds were bullish on Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) at the end of Q3 2022, compared to 56 funds in the prior quarter. Rajiv Jain’s GQG Partners is the largest stakeholder of the company, with 17.4 million shares worth $1.4 billion. 

Here is what Distillate Capital has to say about Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) in its Q3 2022 investor letter:

“It makes intuitive sense that our process that employs bottom-up stock selection based on the combination of valuation and quality would reduce the weight in places that outperformed and add to areas that were weaker. The largest exited positions in the quarter were Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM), which saw its stability score fall slightly below the threshold for inclusion.”