Billionaire Ken Fisher Loves These Dividend Stocks

Ken Fisher runs Fisher Asset Management, a hedge fund which manages a portfolio worth over $65.44 billion. Mr. Fisher has authored several books, including 6 best-sellers. He is known to have introduced price-to-sales ratio metric in the investment world. Fisher’s total worth stands at $3.5 billion, according to Forbes’ real-time billionaires’ data.

Fisher Asset Management has recently disclosed its equity portfolio as of the end of September. The fund held around $56.32 billion in stocks at the end of the third quarter, with the largest shares represented by Finance and Tech stocks respectively. Knowing that Fisher is a highly-skilled stock picker, let’s take a closer look at some of his value bets, particularly dividend stocks with yields of over 3%.

We believe that imitating hedge funds and other large institutional investors can be helpful in identifying stocks capable of outperforming the broader market. Through extensive research that covered portfolios of several hundred large investors between 1999 and 2012, we determined that following the small-cap stocks that large money managers are collectively bullish on, can generate monthly returns nearly 1.0 percentage points above the market (see more details here). 

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE)

– Shares Owned by Fisher Asset Management (as of September 30): 31.84 million

– Value of Fisher Asset Management’s Holding (as of September 30): $1.18 billion

– Dividend Yield: 3.73%

Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management acquired 111,838 shares of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) in the third quarter, ending the quarter with about 31.84 million shares of the company. Last month, Pfizer completed its $14 billion acquisition of Medivation, Inc. (NASDAQ:MDVN). The company recently said it would launch a cheaper version of rival Johnson & Johnson’s autoimmune drug Remicade. The company is set to report its third quarter earnings on November 1 and analysts are currently expecting EPS $0.61 on revenue of $13.06 billion. In the second quarter, it earned $0.64 a share on $13.1 billion in revenue, versus the average analysts’ estimates of EPS of $0.62 and revenue of $13.01 billion. The stock is up 0.81% so far this year. A total of 94 funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) at the end of the second quarter, down from 119 funds a quarter earlier.

General Electric Company (NYSE:GE)

– Shares Owned by Fisher Asset Management (as of September 30): 31.45 million

– Value of Fisher Asset Management’s Holding (as of September 30): $931.72 million

– Dividend Yield: 3.17%

Fisher Asset Management bought 140,857 shares of General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), ending the quarter with a stake of 31.45 million shares worth $931.72 million. General Electric (NYSE: GE) reported industrial and operating verticals EPS of $0.32 for the third quarter, better than the estimates of $0.30, while revenue came in at $29.3 billion, versus the consensus estimate of $29.64 billion. For the full fiscal 2016, the company expects EPS of $1.48 to $1.52, versus the prior guidance of $1.45-$1.55 and the analyst consensus estimate of of $1.50. General Electric slashed its outlook for the full-year revenue growth and now expects it to be from flat to 2%, mainly due to a slowing economic growth of oil and gas businesses. The stock of the Boston-headquartered company has lost nearly 7% since the beginning of the year, which pushed its dividend yield to around 3.17%. At the end of the second quarter, 57 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), down from 64 a quarter earlier.

On the next page, we will discuss Ken Fisher’s other three top dividend picks.

Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg. Co. Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:TSM)

– Shares Owned by Fisher Asset Management (as of September 30): 28.82 million

– Value of Fisher Asset Management’s Holding (as of September 30): $881.76 million

– Dividend Yield: 3.02%

Fisher Asset Management maintained a large position in Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg. Co. Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:TSM) even though it disposed of 416,394 shares of the company during the third quarter. The company recently upped its revenue estimates for 2016 revenue, primarily due to an expected boost in iPhone 7 sales amid Samsung Galaxy Note 7 debacle. The contract chipmaker now expects 11%-12% revenue growth this year, compared to the previous 5%-10% forecast. For the third quarter, Taiwan Semiconductor reported a net profit of T$96.8 billion ($3.08 billion), blowing past analysts’ estimates of T$95.2 billion. Last week, Pacific Crest upgraded Taiwan Semiconductor to ‘Sector Weight’ from ‘Underperform’ due to improved margins outlook and reduced competition. At the end of the second quarter, 26 funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg. Co. Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:TSM).

Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC)

– Shares Owned by Fisher Asset Management (as of September 30): 18.19 million

– Value of Fisher Asset Management’s Holding (as of September 30): $805.45 million

– Dividend Yield: 3.37%

Ken Fisher’s hedge fund sold about 4% of its stake in Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC) during the third quarter ending it with 18.19 million shares of the company. On Wednesday, Los Angeles Times reported that The California Attorney General’s Office had launched a criminal investigation against Wells Fargo over allegations that it opened millions of unauthorized customer accounts and credit cards. The California-based financial services company reported a third-quarter EPS of $1.08, above the analysts’ estimates of $1.01, while revenue of $22.3 billion was also better than the estimates of $22.22 billion. A total of 88 funds tracked by us owned shares of Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC) at the end of the second quarter.

Procter & Gamble Co (NYSE:PG)

– Shares Owned by Fisher Asset Management (as of September 30): 8.1 million

– Value of Fisher Asset Management’s Holding (as of September 30): $727.28 million

– Dividend Yield: 3.18%

Fisher Asset Management acquired 9,569 shares of Procter & Gamble Co (NYSE:PG) during the third quarter. The Ohio-based consumer goods company will report fiscal 2017 first-quarter results next week and analysts estimate EPS of $0.98 on revenue of $16.48 billion. In the fourth quarter, Procter & Gamble earned $0.79 per share on revenue of $16.1 billion topping the consensus estimates of $0.74 and $15.83 billion, respectively. For full fiscal 2017, Procter & Gamble expects EPS of $3.67, versus the consensus of $3.96. The stock is up over 6.6% year-to-date and has a dividend yield of 3.18%. A total of 56 funds in our database held stakes in Procter & Gamble Co (NYSE:PG) at the end of the June quarter.

Disclosure: none