Playing Dividends Like Billionaire Stephen Mandel

Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is no stranger to most hedge fund managers’ portfolios, and their explosive growth as well as their newly announced dividend in 2012 helped to prop up a number of our top fund’s performance throughout this past year. The tech stock is still reeling from the blow shareholders and investors gave them in their past earnings announcement, resulting in mostly sideways trading as the market tries to decide which way to take the stock and interpret Apple’s market share position versus Samsung, Google, etc. AAPL isn’t going anywhere, but their latest stumble has many people wondering, are they still king of the tech titans?

Last on our list of Mandel’s top dividend performers is global apparel company V.F. Corporation (NYSE:VFC), which operates under household brand names such as Lee, The North Face, Wrangler, and Eastpak, amongst many others. The stock carries a respectable dividend yield of 2.4%, recently paying $0.87 per share to shareholders in December. With consistent earnings beats, impressive quarterly revenue and earnings growth, and favorable outlook by analysts, we are fans of VFC and anticipate future appreciation in 2013. Ric Dillon of Diamond Hill Capital is in the same boat, with over $150mm invested. (See how else he is investing the rest of his $9bn fund here.)

Disclosure: I do not own shares of any stocks mentioned in this article.