Not all hedge fund managers are worth paying attention to. Many of them lose money for their clients each year or under perform the market. But when a hedge fund manager has been in the business for 20+ years and continues to beat the market I try to pay attention. David Tepper is one of those types of managers. He runs the top performing hedge fund of 2012 Appaloosa Management and earned $2.2B last year.
I thought it would be fun to see what dividend stocks the top hedge fund managers are holding. Obviously these guys have a different strategy that most dividend investors and are likely to move in an out of investments to turn a profit. Very few of them would ever invest in a dividend payer and DRIP the dividends for 10-20 years.
I’ve listed the top three performing hedge fund managers from 2012. I’ve also included the top holdings of Carl Ichan and Ken Fisher just for fun.
Holding listed as of 12/31/2012. Investments may have changed since then.
David Tepper – Appaloosa Management LP
David Tepper has a long track record of success. He recently made news during an interview when he explained his bullish thesis for the market. Citi really doesn’t pay a dividend but they are expected to boost distributions soon so I’ve listed it here. Of Tepper’s top 10 holdings only 4 pay a dividend.
Apple – AAPL: 2.7% yield
Citi – C: .1% yield
Qualcomm – QCOM: 2.2% yield
Ford – F: 2.9% yield
*Update: Tepper sold 40% of his stake in Apple according to the March 13F filings.
Steven Cohen – SAC Capital Advisors
Steve Cohen is a legendary hedge fund manager that has provided incredible returns for his investors. He founded his hedge fund in 1992 and has a net worth of $8B. 5 of his top 10 holdings paying dividends and he is the only one of these hedge fund managers that has a long term dividend growth stock on his list. .
Sherwin-Williams – SHW: 1.1% yield
News Corp NWSA- .5% yield
Schlumberger – SLB: 1.6% yield
Starbux – SBUX: 1.3% yield
Noble Energy – NBL 1% yield
Ray Dalio – Bridgewater Associates
Ray Dalio founded Bridgewater Associates in 1973 and is now fulfilling a role as mentor for the fund. Most of the holdings of Bridgewater are funds and trusts but there are 3 stocks that do pay dividends in their top 10 holdings.
Microsoft – MSFT: 2.8% yield
CVS Caremark – CVS: 1.6% yield
Hewlett-Packard – HPQ: 2.5% yield
Carl Ichan – Ichan Capital
The man, the myth, the legend. He has been making a lot of waves lately as an activist investor and his track record speaks for itself. He is a big part of the reason why I am long Herbal life – because I like where I think the company will be in 5-10 years. Ichan has a net worth around $20B and now only invests his own money.
Ichan Enterprises – IEP: 4.4% yield
CVR Energy – CVI: 5.1% yield
Chesapeake Energy – CHK: 1.8% yield
American Railcar – ARII: 2.9% yield
Mentor Graphics – MENT: 1% yield
Ken Fisher – Fisher Asset Management
You’ve possible heard of Ken Fisher the author. That’s because he has written a bunch of investment and financial books. A few of them even made the NY Times bestsellers list. Fisher founded his investment firm in 1979 and has a net worth around $2B. Fisher has the most dividend-paying stocks in his top 10 holdings.
Pfizer – PFE: 3.3% yield
Visa – V: .7% yield
Johnson & Johnson – JNJ: 3.1% yield
Oracle – ORCL: .7% yield
Cisco – CSCO: 3.2% yield
HSBC Holdings – HBC: 6.4% yield
General Electric – GE: 3.3% yield
I can identify with Ken Fisher’s holdings the most, most dividend payers.
Any short-term performance data on these guys?
Cheers,
Mark
Most of these guys seem a little light on the yield, though i guess thats understandable as they generally need to hit 20% + returns and dividend stocks can get you low to mid teens but not much more in my view. Thats more than enough to make me happy though!