Best Buy Co., Inc. (BBY), Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (ABX) & More: Billionaire Jeffrey Vinik’s 2.5% and Higher Yield Picks

We track 13F filings from hedge funds and other notable investors such as billionaire Jeffrey Vinik (who has managed money for friends and family since closing his hedge fund in 2000) in order to help us develop investing strategies. We have found that the most popular small cap stocks among hedge funds outperform the S&P 500 by 18 percentage points per year on average (learn more about our small cap strategy), and we believe more techniques are possible as well. Investors can also mine 13F filings for free recommendations from top managers, including stocks which pay moderate to high dividend yields, and then do more research on any names which appear attractive. Here are five stocks which Vinik reported owning on his 13F with dividend yields above 2.5% (or see the full list of stocks from the filing):

Vinik’s largest single-stock holding was Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ABX) at a position of 2.7 million shares. The gold miner’s share price has fallen 34% in the last year as market conditions have worsened; with the company paying a quarterly dividend of 20 cents per share, the yield stands at 3%. Of course, given how sensitive Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ABX) is to gold prices it’s possible that the dividend could be cut. We’d note that Vinik owned a number of other gold stocks as well. Platinum Asset Management, managed by billionaire Kerr Neilson, reported owning 2.9 million shares at the end of December (find Neilson’s favorite stocks).

Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY) was another of Vinik’s top stock picks; the 7.8 million shares in his portfolio were up 50% from what he had owned at the end of September. It’s become less likely that Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY) will be taken over as its price has risen year to date, and the retailer continues to report weak performance with sales coming in flat in its most recent quarter compared to the same period in the previous fiscal year. The stock trades at 11 times forward earnings estimates. Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management was also buying the stock in Q4 (check out Asness’s stock picks).