In this article, we discuss 5 best dividend stocks of 2023. If you want to read our detailed analysis of dividend stocks and their performance over the years, go directly to read 15 Best Dividend Stocks of 2023.
5. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)
Year-to-date Returns as of April 28: 27.5%
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is an American multinational tech company. RBC Capital raised its price target on the stock in April to $350 and maintained an Outperform rating on the shares, appreciating the company’s recent earnings beat. The firm also highlighted the company’s AI segment.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is one of the best dividend stocks on our list as it maintains a 16-year streak of consistent dividend growth. The company currently pays a quarterly dividend of $0.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.89%, as of April 28. The stock is up 27.5% year-to-date.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) was the most popular company among elite funds in Q4 2022, according to Insider Monkey’s database. 259 hedge funds owned stakes in the company, with a total value of over $58.6 billion.
Baron Funds mentioned Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in its Q4 2022 investor letter. Here is what the firm has to say:
“Shares of mega-cap software company Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) outperformed despite a mixed fiscal first quarter due to macro challenges that negatively impacted results and guidance, including foreign exchange headwinds, weakening PC demand, and a cyclical slowdown in advertising spending. Total revenue beat Street expectations at 16% constant-currency growth (vs. estimates of 14%), but its Azure cloud computing business missed analyst projections by 1% for the second straight quarter, though it still grew a robust 42% year-over-year, as Microsoft helped its customers optimize existing workloads due to the macro backdrop. While the optimization of workloads is a short-term headwind, we believe it is the right thing to do and should help drive more consumption with customers over time. Our research continues to indicate that the longer-term secular trend of cloud computing remains healthy and intact. For example, in its fourth quarter CIO survey report, Morgan Stanley showed, among other things, that cloud computing was the second highest CIO spending priority (behind only security software), that cloud application workloads were expected to increase from 27% of total workloads today to 46% by the end of 2025, and that Azure was listed as the preferred cloud vendor and likely to take share over the short and long term.9 Additionally, Microsoft is positioned to be a prime beneficiary of ChatGPT. Microsoft invested $1 billion in OpenAI in 2020 and is rumored to be considering investing an additional $10 billion for a 49% stake in the company. Moreover, ChatGPT runs on Microsoft’s Azure platform, and Microsoft recently announced the general availability of its Azure OpenAI Service enabling Azure customers to access advanced AI models, including ChatGPT itself soon. We remain bullish on Microsoft’s long-term opportunity in the cloud, and believe AI has the potential to be additive to growth for years to come.”
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