5 Best NASDAQ Dividend Stocks To Buy

3. Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD)

Number of Hedge Fund Shareholders: 58

Dividend Yield: 3.68%

Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) hiked its quarterly dividend by just 2.8% this year to $0.73 as its dividend growth continues to slow. Given its solid yield and sub-50% payout ratio, it still looks to be an attractive pharmaceutical dividend stock for investors to diversify their portfolios with.

Gilead has more HIV treatments on the way with blockbuster potential, including Lenacapavir, which could more than make up for Truvada’s 2020 loss of exclusivity. That drug pulled in $2.6 billion in revenue in 2019, which had shrunk to just $34 million in Q2 of this year.

Formerly one of the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds way back in 2016, smart money ownership of Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) has trended down in the years since to barely more than half the levels of six years prior. Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke, and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital owns a sizable 15.7 million shares of GILD worth $968 million as of June 30.

The ClearBridge Investments Sustainability Leaders Strategy, which is invested in several major pharmaceutical companies, including Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD), discussed the company’s controversial remdesivir in its Q4 2021 investor letter:

“Other pharma companies are providing solutions as well. Biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences’ remdesivir, sold under the brand name Veklury, is a broad-spectrum antiviral medication administered by intravenous infusion; it can shorten the time to recovery in hospitalized patients and reduce the risk of hospitalization and death in non-hospitalized patients.”