5 Best Dividend Stocks For 2021

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

Dividend Yield: 5.54%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 52

Philip Morris has over 10 years of consecutive dividend hikes. The company on March 4 declared a quarterly dividend of $1.20 per share, in line with previous dividend. The tobacco company recently reiterated its 2021 EPS guidance of $5.90-$6.00. The company expects about 40% increase in net revenue from smokeless products.

With a $1.6 billion stake in Philip Morris, Terry Smith’s Fundsmith LLP owns 19.4 million shares of the company as of the end of the fourth quarter of 2020. Our database shows that 52 hedge funds held stakes in PM as of the end of the fourth quarter, versus 50 funds in the third quarter.

Fundsmith LLP, in their Q4 2020 investor letter, mentioned Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE: PM).

“We are impressed with Philip Morris’s development of Reduced Risk Products or RRPs, most notably its heat not burn system iQOS. It seems we are not the only ones to view it this way as it was recently included in the Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index for the first time. For the moment the shares are weighed down by COVID related disruption to some of its markets and simple prejudice which seems to prevent some commentators from weighing the benefits the RRPs bring against the obvious fact that it is a tobacco company.”