Warren Buffett Dividend Stocks by Sectors and Industries

4. The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO)

Berkshire Hathaway’s Stake Value: $25,460,000,000

Sector: Consumer Staples

Industry: Beverages—Non-Alcoholic

The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) is the oldest holding of Berkshire Hathaway. The hedge fund started investing in the company in 1988. In 2023, Buffett noted that Berkshire’s $1.3 billion investment in Coke, made from the late 1980s through the mid-1990s, has been fully justified by the dividend payments alone. In 2022, Coke paid out $704 million in annual dividends. Last year, Berkshire received $736 million in dividends from Coke, and it is expected to receive $776 million this year. At the end of Q2 2024, the hedge fund owned 400 million KO shares, worth over $25.4 billion. The company represented over 9% of the firm’s 13F portfolio.

This indicates that The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) is highly valued for its dividends. However, the real factor behind this popularity is the company’s strong cash flow. In the second quarter of 2024, the company reported an operating cash flow of $4.1 billion and its free cash flow came in at $3.3 billion. The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) is one of the best Warren Buffett dividend stocks as the company has been rewarding shareholders with growing dividends for 62 consecutive years. Currently, it pays a quarterly dividend of $0.485 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.79%, as of August 21.

Insider Monkey’s database of Q2 2024 indicated that 68 hedge funds owned stakes in The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO), growing from 62 in the preceding quarter. These stakes are worth nearly $32 billion in total.