5 Favored Dividend Stocks of Billionaire Activist Nelson Peltz

3. SYSCO Corporation (NYSE:SYY)

– Shares Owned by Trian Fund (as of September 30): 41.41 Million
– Value of Trian Fund’s Shares (as of September 30): $1.61 Billion

Food giant SYSCO Corporation (NYSE:SYY) pays a $0.30 quarterly dividend which currently gives it a yield of 3.00%. The stock has also been a strong performer in the second half of the year, gaining over 10%, partly on Trian’s own involvement, with the firm’s enlarged activist stake being disclosed in early August. Shortly afterwards, Peltz and Trian’s Josh Frank were added to SYSCO Corporation (NYSE:SYY)’s board. Trian ended the third quarter with 31.19 million more Sysco shares than it began the quarter with.

2. PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE:PEP)

– Shares Owned by Trian Fund (as of September 30): 18.32 Million
– Value of Trian Fund’s Shares (as of September 30): $1.73 Billion

PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE:PEP) has had a solid year despite doing about half of its business outside of the U.S, which has led to currency headwinds from the strengthening U.S dollar. With the greenback expected to grow stronger in 2016, more headwinds remain. Nonetheless, with its dividend yield of 2.87%, shares of Pepsi look quite attractive, which is why the stock is loved by value investors like Donald Yacktman and Tom Gayner. PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE:PEP) still has room for growth internationally, and has also set a target of $30 billion in annual sales of healthier food products, though its revenue in that category has stagnated over the past few years and appears destined to widely miss those estimates.

1. General Electric Company (NYSE:GE)

– Shares Owned by Trian Fund (as of September 30): 90.57 Million
– Value of Trian Fund’s Shares (as of September 30): $2.28 Billion

General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) is Trian’s new top pick, after the firm added over 40.94 million shares of the stock to its portfolio in the third quarter, lifting it past Mondelez International Inc. (NASDAQ:MDLZ) into the top spot. GE’s dividend payments come with a yield of 3.04% at present, the best of the five dividend stocks covered in this article. It’s also one of the top 20 stocks that matter the most to financial investors, ranking fourth. The $306 billion company was not quite as popular among the elite investors that we track, with just 1.4% of its shares being held by 70 of them on June 30. Among them were Warren Buffett (who held a small position by his standards, worth over $281 million), and billionaire Ken Fisher.

Disclosure: None