Bill Gates’ Top 5 Dividend Stocks

3. Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM)

Bill Gates’ Stake Value: $5,644,894,000
Dividend Yield as of November 17: 1.65%

Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) is a Texas-based company that deals in comprehensive waste and also offers environmental services to its consumers. In October, Jefferies upgraded the stock to Buy while lifting its price target to $191. The firm mentioned that the company will benefit from the favorable pricing environment in the industry and has also shown margin improvement over the quarters.

In the past five years, Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) has raised its dividends at a CAGR of 6%. Overall, the company has grown its dividends for 15 years in a row. It currently pays a quarterly dividend of $0.65 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.65%, as of November 17.

The Gates Foundation has been investing in Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) since the third quarter of 2012. During Q3 2022, the hedge fund increased its position in the company by 90%, which takes its total WM stake to over $5.6 billion. The company represented 16.6% of Bill Gates’ portfolio.

According to Insider Monkey’s data, 37 hedge funds invested in Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) in Q2 2022, compared with 40 in the previous quarter. These investments hold a collective value of over $3.7 billion.

Diamond Hill Capital mentioned Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) in its Q1 2022 investor letter. Here is what the firm has to say:

“We also initiated a position in Waste Management (NYSE:WM), one of the largest providers of waste collection services in the US. We believe it is a high-quality business with ownership of key landfill assets that provide pricing power over the long term. Its stock was trading at a discount to our estimate of intrinsic value due to short-term market concerns over an increase in growth investments—we expect these investments to be value-creating over the long term.”