5 Best Safe Blue Chip Dividend Stocks

4. Medtronic plc (NYSE: MDT)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 65
Number of Years of Consistent Dividend Growth: 44
Dividend Yield: 1.97%

Medtronic plc (NYSE: MDT) is a health care equipment provider that manufactures device-based medical therapies for distribution to hospitals, physicians, clinicians, and patients across the world. The company ranks 4th on our list of the best safe blue chip dividend stocks.

This June, Piper Sandler analyst Matt O’Brien retained his Overweight rating on Medtronic plc (NYSE: MDT) shares alongside a $140 price target despite the company’s discontinuation of the sale of its HeartWare HVAD pump system. O’Brien commented that the company is now free to focus on more profitable areas of business, hence his decision to keep the positive rating.

In the fiscal fourth quarter of 2021, Medtronic plc (NYSE: MDT) had an EPS of $1.50, beating estimates by $0.08. The company’s revenue was $8.19 billion, also beating estimates by $59.18 million and representing a 36.51% growth year over year. Medtronic plc (NYSE: MDT) has also gained about 9.36% in the past 6 months and 10.1% in the past year.

By the end of the first quarter of 2021, 65 hedge funds out of the 866 tracked by Insider Monkey held stakes in Medtronic plc (NYSE: MDT) worth roughly $3.62 billion. This is compared to 59 hedge funds in the previous quarter with stakes worth about $2.81 billion.