KAPITALLWIRE: Quest For Yield: Warren Buffett’s Top Dividend Stocks

• Posted:02/20/13
• By:Freda Ding
• t

We've got updates on Warren Buffett's holdings via Berkshire Hathaway from the latest filing on Valentine's day. Among others, positions in Sanofi (SNY), Procter & Gamble (PG), Kraft (KRFT), and Wells Fargo (WFC) were all increased. As usual, Buffett's tend to favor mature companies with proven histories. He also has an appreciation for established histories of dividend payments to patient shareholders.

If Warren Buffett had a distillable virtue, it would be discipline. And that means investing in stocks that generate returns beyond just share price appreciation. In a recent letter to shareholders he wrote:

"Emotions…too often complicate the matter: Most people, including those who will be net buyers in the future, take comfort in seeing stock prices advance. These shareholders resemble a commuter who rejoices after the price of gas increases, simply because his tank contains a day's supply."

Warren Buffett's Highest Yielding Dividend Stocks

The value investor gets a good night's sleep by holding good companies that he or she is confident will be around at dawn. And whether or not the stock price fluctuates, there's nothing like getting paid to just hold on to a stock. 

Below is the updated list of Buffett's highest yielding stocks. Press play on the interactive chart to see changes in yield for the stocks on this list. (Click through to access more free tools, create practice portfolios, and open a live trading account with no minimums)

Complete list:

1. Wells Fargo & Company (WFC, Earnings, Analysts, Financials): Provides retail, commercial, and corporate banking services primarily in the United States. Market cap at $185.16B, most recent closing price at $35.16. Dividend yield at 2.84%.

2. Procter & Gamble Co. (PG, Earnings, Analysts, Financials): Provides consumer packaged goods in the United States and internationally. Market cap at $209.08B, most recent closing price at $76.54. Dividend yield at 2.94%.

3. General Dynamics Corp. (GD, Earnings, Analysts, Financials): Provides business aviation, combat vehicles, weapons systems and munitions, military and commercial shipbuilding, and communications and information technology products and services worldwide. Market cap at $23.47B, most recent closing price at $66.40. Dividend yield at 3.07%.

4. Johnson & Johnson (JNJ, Earnings, Analysts, Financials): Engages in the research and development, manufacture, and sale of various products in the health care field worldwide. Market cap at $211.06B, most recent closing price at $76.16. Dividend yield at 3.20%.

5. General Electric Company (GE, Earnings, Analysts, Financials): Operates as a technology, service, and finance company worldwide. Market cap at $244.23B, most recent closing price at $23.29. Dividend yield at 3.26%.

6. Sanofi (SNY, Earnings, Analysts, Financials): Engages in the discovery, development, and distribution of therapeutic solutions to improve the lives of everyone. Market cap at $127.55B, most recent closing price at $48.02. Dividend yield at 3.52%.

7. Gannett Co., Inc. (GCI, Earnings, Analysts, Financials): Operates as a media and marketing solutions company in the United States and internationally. Market cap at $4.63B, most recent closing price at $20.16. Dividend yield at 3.97%.

8. Kraft Foods Group, Inc. (KRFT, Earnings, Analysts, Financials): Market cap at $27.95B, most recent closing price at $47.17. Dividend yield at 4.24%.

9. ConocoPhillips (COP, Earnings, Analysts, Financials): Operates as an integrated energy company worldwide. Market cap at $69.22B, most recent closing price at $57.02. Dividend yield at 4.63%.

10. GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK, Earnings, Analysts, Financials): Engages in the discovery, development, manufacture, and marketing of pharmaceutical products, over the counter (OTC) medicines, and health-related consumer products worldwide. Market cap at $111.86B, most recent closing price at $45.62. Dividend yield at 5.09%.

Written by Freda Ding

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Read the full transcript of the October 24 2012 Squawk Box Interview with Warren Buffett
Download the 2010 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Report
Download the 1977 - 2011 Warren Buffett Letter's to Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders


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