5 Best S&P 500 Dividend Stocks To Buy

4. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 140

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is another best S&P 500 dividend stock on our list. The multinational tech firm currently pays a quarterly dividend of $0.23 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.65%, as of January 24. The company has been raising its dividends consistently for the past nine years.

In January, UBS maintained its Buy rating on Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) with a $180 price target ahead of the company’s quarterly earnings.

In fiscal Q4 2022, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) reported revenue of $90.1 billion, which saw an 8.1% growth from the same period last year. The company’s cash position remained strong during the quarter with $23.6 billion available in cash and cash equivalents. Moreover, it returned $29 billion to shareholders in dividends and share repurchases.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) was a part of 140 hedge fund portfolios in Q3 2022, growing from 128 in the previous quarter. The collective value of stakes owned by these hedge funds is over $144 billion. Among these funds, Berkshire Hathaway was the company’s leading stakeholder in Q3.

Wedgewood Partners mentioned Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in its Q4 2022 investor letter. Here is what the firm has to say:

“Apple grew quarterly revenues +14% (foreign exchange adjusted) driven by +16% growth in iPhone revenues (also foreign exchange adjusted). iPhone revenue growth was particularly impressive because The Company is compounding on +47 growth from a year ago. Apple’s installed base is over 1.8 billion devices which helps drive a software and services business, which in turn has generated almost $80 billion of revenue over the past four quarters and is up +60% compared to calendar 2019 (pre-Pandemic). As we have highlighted in the past, Apple’s relentless focus on the development and integration between hardware (especially integrated circuits) and software, continues to add significant value for customers of their products and services. We expect this favorable competitive dynamic to continue for the foreseeable future.”