5 Best Dividend Stocks to Buy According to Cliff Asness’ AQR Capital Management

4. Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 63
Dividend Yield as of January 17: 2.41%

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO), an American multinational technology company, declared a quarterly dividend of $0.37 per share on December 13. The stock’s current dividend yield stands at 2.41%. Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) has been increasing its dividend for the past 11 years consecutively.

In Q3 2021, AQR Capital Management held over 7.3 million shares in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO), worth over $398 million. The company represented 0.73% of Cliff Asness’ portfolio. Tigress Financial expects the company to benefit from the spending on the IT sector and its strategic acquisitions. Recently, the firm initiated a 12-month price target on Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO), with a Buy rating on the shares. As of the close of January 17, the stock’s 12-month returns stood at 35.7%.

The number of hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey having stakes in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) grew to 63 in Q3, from 60 in the previous quarter. The consolidated value of these stakes is roughly $4 billion.

ClearBridge Investments mentioned Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) in its Q3 2021 investor letter. Here is what the firm has to say:

“We reinvested a portion of the proceeds into existing holding Cisco Systems, which also has highly valuable technology and an improving secular growth story with its leading position in core networking hardware, as well as in its growing software and services business. Cisco has refocused on winning share in the large and growing hyperscale market and has been investing aggressively in R&D to support growth. We believe Cisco has found new legs after previously ceding some growth opportunities in cloud while maintaining its strong presence in the carrier and enterprise markets. Cisco boasts a strong balance sheet and accelerating multiyear growth while trading at a modest multiple of earnings.”