5 Best Dividend Stocks for Passive Income

2 – ExxonMobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM)

Similar to the Chevron, Exxon Mobil also operates in the Oil, Gas and Consumable Fuels industry. Over the 135 years of its history Exxon evolved from a regional marketer of kerosene in the U.S. to one of the largest publicly traded energy companies in the world. There were a total of 52 hedge funds with bullish positions in XOM at the end of September. Almost with a billion dollar sum First Eagle Investment Management has the largest position in the stock. Here is what they said in their Q3 investor letter about the stock:

““The stock of Exxon Mobil continued to struggle in the third quarter, and it lost roughly half its market cap year to date. Despite this, we believed Exxon Mobil was well-equipped to contend with lower prices and remained a compelling investment. The company demonstrated high levels of operational flexibility during the difficult market environment and maintained an upward drift in earnings power. Its high-quality, long-duration assets occupy attractive positions on the cost curve.”

Indeed, the large decline in XOM shares resulted in a double digit dividend yield earlier this year. ExxonMobil has successfully increased its dividend for 37 consecutive years. Current dividend for the third quarter of this year is $0.87 per share, and that makes a 9.42% dividend yield in annualized terms. This number is the highest yield offered by the companies featured in this article. We agree with First Eagle. Exxon shares offer a large upside over the next 12 months.

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