Cullen Capital 13F (2026 Q1): A High-Dividend Value Book

Value investing through the dividend lens

Cullen Capital Management, the firm associated with James Cullen and the Schafer Cullen high-dividend value tradition, approaches value investing from a particular angle: it favors companies that pay above-market dividends and trade at modest valuations. The logic is that a sustainable, above-average dividend yield both signals a sensible price and pays the investor to wait while value is realized. Its 2026Q1 13F is a textbook expression of that strategy, about $9.75 billion spread across 213 positions, dominated by the large, mature, cash-returning businesses that high-dividend investors gravitate toward.

The book is strikingly diffuse. The largest holding, Novartis, is just 3.19% of reported value, and the rest of the top ten, Cisco, Johnson & Johnson, Exxon Mobil, Bank of America, Duke Energy, Citigroup, Merck, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley, sits between 2.4% and 3.2% each. This is a portfolio built for broad, diversified exposure to dividend-paying value rather than concentrated conviction in a few names.

A roster defined by dividends

What ties the holdings together is income. Pharmaceutical majors, big banks, regulated utilities, integrated energy, and established technology, the sectors that populate the top of the book, are exactly where durable, above-market dividends live. A regulated utility like Duke Energy, an integrated major like Exxon, and money-center banks like JPMorgan and Citigroup are classic high-dividend value holdings: mature businesses with the cash flow to pay shareholders generously while trading at reasonable multiples. The strategy is less about finding the next great grower than about assembling a diversified stream of dependable income at a sensible price.

A growing book with modest rotation

Unlike many value managers navigating outflows, Cullen's reported value has been rising, up 6.5% on the quarter and climbing from roughly $8.7 billion two years ago to $9.75 billion now, a trajectory consistent with steady inflows and market gains rather than redemptions. The position-level activity was modest: trims to Exxon Mobil (down 11% of shares) and Merck (down 10%), with most of the large dividend payers held essentially flat. That is the rhythm of a diversified income strategy, hold the dividend stream steady, prune at the margins where valuations or yields shift, and let the breadth of the book do the work.

How to read a high-dividend value book

A filing this diffuse is not about any single position; with 213 names and nothing above 3.2%, the story is the aggregate tilt. The signal lives in the sector composition, heavy in pharma, financials, utilities, and energy, the natural home of dependable dividends, and in the gentle direction of the trims. For investors who use filings as a research input, a high-dividend value book like Cullen's is most useful as a map of where a dividend-focused manager currently finds yield at a reasonable price, rather than as a list of high-conviction single bets. You can explore the full holdings, the position changes, and the longer history on the Cullen Capital filer page.