5 Best Dividend Stocks To Buy and Hold

3. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 140

Dividend Yield as of January 17: 0.68%

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is one of the best dividend growth stocks to buy and hold for an income portfolio. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has increased its quarterly dividend payments for the last 11 years consecutively. Smartphones sales around the world declined during the fourth quarter of 2022, but that did not stop Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) from claiming its biggest-ever quarterly share of the smartphone market. 

On January 17, Evercore ISI analyst Amit Daryanani maintained an Outperform rating and a $190 price target on Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares and added the stock to the firm’s Tactical Outperform List. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has underperformed the S&P 500 by 16% since it reported third quarter earnings, creating an attractive buying opportunity ahead of fourth quarter earnings, which should be a positive catalyst, the analyst told investors in a research note. 

According to Insider Monkey’s data, 140 hedge funds were long Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) at the end of Q3 2022, compared to 128 funds in the last quarter. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is the biggest position holder in the company, with approximately 895 million shares worth $123.6 billion. 

TimesSquare Capital made the following comment about Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in its Q3 2022 investor letter:

“Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) designs and manufactures smartphones, personal computers, tablets, and wearable devices. The company reported better than expected revenues, though that came from a lower-than-expected supply chain impact. Apple called out pockets of weakness in wearables as well as home & accessories. Management referenced macroeconomic uncertainty and sounded somewhat guarded when commenting on fourth quarter expectations. In September, Apple introduced four new iPhones with retail prices kept at last year’s levels. Its shares edged forward by 1% in consideration of these developments. We trimmed the position after evaluating the channel which highlighted some consumer demand choppiness.”