5 Favorite Defensive Stocks of Hedge Funds

2. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM)

Number Of Hedge Fund Holders: 110

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City. Having increased its dividends consecutively for the past 12 years, the company currently pays a quarterly dividend of $1.00 per share, in line with the previous, raising it by 11.1% in 2021. As of June 9, the stock’s dividend yield was recorded at 3.19%.

On May 24, Societe Generale analyst Andrew Lim upgraded JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) to Buy from Hold with a price target of $150, up from $145. In a note to investors, the analyst states that the company at its investor day delivered positive guidance on net interest income, credit quality and investment bank trading revenues, thus painting a more optimistic image of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM)’s excess capital generation from 2023.

According to Insider Monkey’s Q1 2022 database, 110 hedge funds were bullish on JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM), up from 107 in the previous quarter. These stakes held an aggregate value of over $5.05 billion. Billionaire Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management was the biggest shareholder of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) in the first quarter of 2022, with 7.76 million shares valued at $1.05 billion,

ClearBridge Investments mentioned a few stocks in its Q4 2021 investor letter, and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:

“Our energy and financials holdings kept pace in the 2021 rally.  In financials, JPMorgan benefited from strong economic growth, a rise in Treasury yields, and a benign credit environment.”