5 Best Dow Jones Dividend Stocks that Hedge Funds Love

3. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 128

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), one of the largest tech companies in the world, reported a strong financial position in Q3 2022. The company’s operating cash flow came in at $23 billion while it generated $20.7 billion in free cash flow. It returned nearly $20 billion to shareholders in dividends, which shows the company’s sufficient FCF.

Recently, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) announced a collaboration with Microsoft, through which some of the company’s major services will be available for Windows. These services include Apple Music, Apple TV, and iCloud photos.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has been raising its dividends consistently for the past nine years. The company pays a quarterly dividend of $0.23 per share and as of October 26, has a dividend yield of 0.60%.

Evercore ISI estimated that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) could generate nearly $2 billion in services revenue due to the growth in its subscribers worldwide. In view of this, the firm raised its price target on the stock to $190 in October with an Outperform rating on the shares.

Of the 895 elite funds tracked by Insider Monkey in Q2 2022, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) was a part of 128 hedge fund portfolios, compared with 131 in the previous quarter. The stakes owned by these hedge funds have a total value of over $143 billion. Berkshire Hathaway was the largest stakeholder of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in Q2 2022.

Wedgewood Partners mentioned Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in its Q3 2022 investor letter. Here is what the firm has to say:

“Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) grew revenues +5% (foreign exchange adjusted and excluding Russia) driven by record iPhone revenues that were up about +3% on an exceptional year ago comparison of +50%. Apple’s installed base is over 1.8 billion devices which helps drive a software and services business that has generated almost $80 billion of revenue over the past 4 quarters. As we have highlighted in the past, Apple’s relentless focus on the development and integration between hardware (especially ICs) as well as software, continues to add significant value for customers of its products and services. We expect this favorable competitive dynamic to continue for the foreseeable future.”