We recently compiled a list of the 15 Stocks to Invest in with Steady Dividends. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY) stands against the other dividend stocks.

Dividend stocks, while popular among investors, have been underperforming for a while. Dan Lefkovitz, a strategist at Morningstar Indexes, attributed this lag to a straightforward reason: their limited exposure to the technology sector. Although technology wasn’t the top-performing sector in 2024, it came close and now represents a significant portion of the market.

However, this doesn’t suggest that dividend stocks are fundamentally weak or that they won’t rebound in the future. Alex Bryan, Morningstar’s director of product management for equity indexes, believes that changing market dynamics could benefit dividend investors. Here are some comments from the analyst:

“From a valuation standpoint, dividends look more attractive than they did a year ago, and that’s partially because of the relative underperformance that they’ve had. Bonds are certainly more competitive relative to dividends. But if you look at dividend-paying stocks relative to the rest of the equity markets, I think they’re becoming more attractive relative to other stocks.”

Other analysts also suggested that dividend-paying stocks might stage a comeback in 2025 due to growing investor demand for cash returns. The broader market’s dividend yield fell below 1.19% in 2024, marking a 20-year low, compared to its long-term average of 4.3%. With interest rates recovering on risk-free investments like Treasurys, companies are facing increased competition for yield. As a result, many are raising dividends or initiating them for the first time. Notably, some major tech giants began paying dividends in 2024, signaling to the market their shift toward value positioning within a high-growth sector.

Also read: 10 Best High-Yield Dividend Stocks To Invest In

In 2024, companies in the broader market that paid dividends returned around 35% of their net income and 45% of their free cash flow to shareholders, as reported by Bloomberg. The average dividend yield for these companies was approximately 2.3%, while the market capitalization-weighted yield stood at about 1.5%.

Wolfe Research’s Chief Investment Strategist, Chris Senyek, offers a unique perspective on investing in dividend stocks. While investors typically focus on companies with growing dividends and high yields, Senyek suggested exploring other opportunities. He highlighted companies initiating dividends for the first time and those that have recently reduced their payouts. Initiating a dividend indicates management’s confidence in maintaining steady earnings and cash flow, while also attracting a new group of investors.

Senyek also noted that shares of companies that cut dividends tend to underperform leading up to the cut, perform in line with the market shortly after, and begin to outperform about six months later. The key is to identify companies that may be at risk of cutting dividends and to reconsider those that reduced payouts a few months earlier. To forecast potential cuts, Senyek examines companies with high dividend yields, substantial debt, and elevated payout ratios. For potential new dividend payers, Senyek seeks out companies with robust free cash flow yields that are actively repurchasing shares and maintaining manageable debt levels. In view of this, we will take a look at stocks with steady dividends.

Our Methodology:

For this article, we scanned Insider Monkey’s database of 900 hedge funds as of Q3 2024 and picked dividend stocks with over 10 consecutive years of dividend growth. From this list, we further refined our selection criteria by identifying stocks with a projected upside potential of over 10% based on analyst price targets, as of January 20. The stocks are ranked according to their upside potential. We also considered hedge fund sentiment around each stock using Insider Monkey’s data for Q3 2024.

Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points. (see more details here).

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY)

Upside Potential as of January 20: 10.7%

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY) is a New York-based pharmaceutical industry company. It is facing some challenges, but management is actively addressing them. Efforts are underway to reduce costs, with an aim to cut approximately $1.5 billion in expenses annually by the end of 2025. In addition, the company intends to maintain its focus on research and development (R&D) in oncology, targeting areas that management expects will yield the highest returns on investment, helping to drive growth while managing expenses.

As a result of these initiatives, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY) is gaining favor with analysts. They believe it is well-positioned for growth as it approaches a critical period, with outcomes from 40 clinical trials on the horizon. By 2025, five new products are anticipated to contribute at least half of the company’s revenue, marking the beginning of substantial growth. A notable asset in its pipeline is Cobenfy, a schizophrenia treatment that has already outperformed other branded options in the market, showing significant commercial promise.

In addition to this, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY) is also popular among investors because of its stable dividend policy. The company’s cash position is strong, as it generated $15 billion in operating cash flow in the past 12 months and its levered free cash flow for the period came in at $17.5 billion. Due to this cash flow, the company has never skipped a dividend in the past 93 years and has raised its payouts for 16 consecutive years. It currently offers a quarterly dividend of $0.62 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.33%, as of January 20.

As of the close of Q3 2024, 70 hedge funds in Insider Monkey’s database owned stakes in Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY), growing from 61 in the previous quarter. These stakes have a consolidated value of over $3.3 billion.

Overall BMY ranks 13th on our list of the best dividend stocks with high yields. While we acknowledge the potential for BMY as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than BMY but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stock To Buy Now and Complete List of 59 AI Companies Under $2 Billion in Market Cap

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.