5 Dividend Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaire Leon Cooperman

2. Cigna Corporation (NYSE:CI)

Dividend Yield as of March 24: 1.84%

Value of Omega Advisors‘ 13F Position: $103 million

Hedge fund ownership of Cigna Corporation (NYSE:CI) has dipped by 16% over the past two quarters and stands 32% lower than its all-time high levels reached in early 2018. Cooperman has been a CI shareholder since Q3 2018 and left his position of 450,000 shares unchanged during Q4 2021.

Cigna Corporation (NYSE:CI), which switched from annual dividend payments to quarterly payments beginning last year, has a 31-year run of making distributions to shareholders, though its annual payments for the past 13 years had been a paltry $0.04. Its forthcoming quarterly payment of $1.12, to be made on March 24 to shareholders of record as of March 9, represents a 12% increase over the previous quarter’s.

Cigna Corporation (NYSE:CI) returned $9 billion to shareholders last year in the form of dividends and share buybacks after pulling in $20.47 in adjusted earnings per share, an 11% year-over-year increase. The health services provider is projecting EPS of at least $22.40 in 2022.

Davis Funds, an investment management firm, published its “Davis Opportunity Fund” fourth-quarter 2021 investor letter and mentioned Cigna Corporation (NYSE:CI). Here‘s what the fund said:

“Healthcare is included in the portfolio both for company-specific reasons, as well as big picture trends. At the company level, we hold select companies in pharmaceuticals, healthcare services and health insurance at attractive valuations. This is at a time when the average age of the U.S. population is fast approaching 40, older than Asia-Pacific and a little younger than the aged populations of Europe and Japan. The number of seniors in the U.S.—i.e., 65 years or older— now surpasses 54 million, or about 15% of the population. Seniors, on average, take a much greater number of medications and account for a large and disproportionate share of healthcare spending, and we expect that trend to continue due to both raw demographics and a proliferation in the number of available treatments and services available now, the latter being driven by innovation and investment in the healthcare industry. Representative holdings in the Fund include Cigna, United Health Group, Viatris and Quest Diagnostics.”