Five Dividend Aristocrats Hedge Funds Are Bullish On

The second healthcare dividend aristocrat that made the list is AbbVie Inc (NYSE:ABBV), whose yield, as stated earlier, is the highest among healthcare dividend aristocrats. AbbVie pays a dividend of $0.57 per share, which gives the stock a yield of 4.06%. However, among the funds in our database, the number of investors with long positions in the stock slid by eight to 70 during the fourth quarter, while the aggregate value of their holdings inched up to $5.29 billion from $5.24 billion and totaled 5.50% of the company’s shares at the end of December. Earlier this week, the U.S Food and Drug Administration approved the use of IMBRUVICA for treatment-naive patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. For the fourth quarter, AbbVie Inc (NYSE:ABBV) reported EPS of $1.13, slightly above the estimates of $1.12, but its revenue of $6.36 billion missed the expectations of $6.41 billion. One of the funds bullish on AbbVie Inc (NYSE:ABBV) is Larry Robbins‘ Glenview Capital, which owns 13.54 million shares as of December 31.

Finally, on the fifth spot is Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM), in which 68 funds from our database reported long positions in during the latest round of 13F filings, versus 61 funds a quarter earlier, which makes it the second stock in this list that registered an increase in popularity during the fourth quarter. However, the total value of these funds’ holdings slid to $3.08 billion from $3.19 billion and was equal to just 0.90% of Exxon’s outstanding stock. Among the funds we track, Fisher Asset Management reported holding 6.07 million shares of Exxon as of the end of last year, down by 2% on the quarter. Amid a slump in oil prices, Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM)’s stock has declined by 7% over the last 52 weeks and currently sports a yield of 3.55% given the quarterly dividend payment of $0.73 per share. Amid the drop in crude prices, investors and analysts have been concerned as to whether Exxon will be able to keep paying high dividends to shareholders, but the company has a strong balance sheet and has cut its capital expenditures in order to offset the decline in oil prices. For the current year, Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) plans to reduce its CAPEX by 25% to $23.2 billion and analysts expect the company to keep raising dividends and instead reduce its buyback program until oil prices rebound.

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