Dividend Stocks

Dividends can produce as much as a third of your total return over long periods, and you can even retire on dividends.

There are 4 key stock dividend dates that are involved with dividend payments:

1- The Declaration Date is several weeks in advance of a dividend payment—it’s when company’s board of directors sets the amount and timing of the proposed payment.

2- The Payable Date is the date set by the board on which the dividend will actually be paid out to shareholders.

3- The Record Date is for shareholders who hold the stock before the payable date and receive the dividend payment. That date is set any number of weeks before the payable date.

4-The Ex-Dividend Date is two business days before the record date and it’s when the shares begin to trade without their dividend. If you buy stocks one day or more before their ex-dividend date, you will still get the dividend. That’s when a stock is said to trade cum-dividend. If you buy on the ex-dividend date or later, you won’t get the dividend. The ex-dividend date is in place to allow pending stock trades to settle.

We think very highly of stocks that have been paying dividends for five or more years, at TSI Network. Many of these stocks fit in well with our three-part Successful Investor philosophy:

1- Invest mainly in well-established companies;

2- Spread your money out across most if not all of the five main economic sectors (Manufacturing & Industry; Resources & Commodities; Consumer; Finance; and Utilities);

3- Downplay or avoid stocks in the broker/media limelight.

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ENBRIDGE INC. $43 (Toronto symbol ENB; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 826.0 million; Market cap: $35.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.3; Dividend yield: 2.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.enbridge.com) is extending its Woodland pipeline, which will let it pump more bitumen from the recently opened Kearl oil sands project in northern Alberta to refineries and other pipelines in Edmonton. Imperial Oil (see above) owns 71% of Kearl; Exxon owns the remaining 29%.

The company will spend $1.3 billion on this project, which should begin operating in the third quarter of 2015.

Enbridge is a buy.
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IMPERIAL OIL LTD. $42 (Toronto symbol IMO; Conservative Growth Portfolio; Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 848.0 million; Market cap: $35.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.2; Dividend yield: 1.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.imperialoil.ca) has teamed up with its parent company, ExxonMobil Corp. (New York symbol XOM), to buy 226,000 acres of undeveloped oil sands properties near Fort McMurray, Alberta. (Exxon owns 69.9% of Imperial.)

Imperial will hold 27.5% of these properties, while Exxon will own the remaining 72.5%. Imperial’s share of the $751-million cost is $206.5 million. That’s equal to 63% of the $327 million, or $0.38 a share, that the company earned in the second quarter of 2013.

Purchases like this will help Imperial increase its daily production from 276,000 barrels of oil equivalent (including gas) in the latest quarter to 600,000 barrels by 2020.
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BELL ALIANT INC. $27 (Toronto symbol BA, Conservative Growth Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 229.1 million; Market cap: $6.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.2; Dividend yield: 7.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.bellaliant.ca) sells telephone and Internet services to 2.4 million customers in Atlantic Canada and rural parts of Ontario and Quebec. It also sells wireless services through an alliance with BCE (see left).

The company continues to replace its copper-wire cables with fibre optic lines. That’s letting it sell more high-speed Internet and digital TV services, which is offsetting falling demand for land lines. (Traditional phones still supply 52% of its overall revenue.)

In the three months ended June 30, 2013, Bell Aliant’s revenue rose 0.6%, to $691.8 million from $687.7 million a year ago. Earnings fell 10.8%, to $0.66 a share from $0.74. If you exclude a charge related to an early debt repayment and other unusual items, per-share earnings would have fallen 4.9%, to $0.39 from $0.41.

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SNC-LAVALIN GROUP INC. $41 (Toronto symbol SNC; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 151.6 million; Market cap: $6.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.8; Dividend yield: 2.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.snclavalin.com) replaced most of its senior management following the discovery of $56 million U.S. in unusual payments it made in 2011 to help win Libyan construction contracts. SNC has also strengthened its oversight and compliance procedures in response to allegations that it used bribes to win certain contracts in Quebec.

These issues haven’t stopped the company from winning new deals. For example, MEG Energy (Toronto symbol MEG) recently hired SNC to design a new processing facility at its oil sands operation in Alberta.

However, SNC lost $37.7 million, or $0.25 a share, in the three months ended June 30, 2013. That’s mainly due to a $70.1-million charge related to delays building an oil-and-gas project in Algeria. The company also set aside $47.0 million to cover potential losses on a project in Libya that it stopped working on in 2011. A year earlier, SNC earned $31.7 million, or $0.21 a share.
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AGRIUM INC. $90 (Toronto symbol AGU; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 147.0 million; Market cap: $13.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.8; Dividend yield: 2.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.agrium.com) gets just 4% of its revenue and 8% of its earnings from selling potash. As a result, the stock held up well after the break-up of a marketing alliance between two major potash producers in Russia and Belarus. The split could lead to sharply lower potash prices.

Prices for other fertilizers have also suffered recently, as coolerthan- normal weather prompted farmers to delay the spring planting season. That’s why Agrium’s earnings in the three months ended June 30, 2013 fell 14.8%, to $736 million from $864 million a year earlier (all amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). Earnings per share fell 9.7%, to $4.94 from $5.47.

However, sales rose 3.6%, to $7.0 billion from $6.8 billion, after an acquisition raised revenue at Agrium’s retail division by 6.6%.
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BLACKBERRY LTD. $11 (Toronto symbol BB; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 524.2 million; Market cap: $5.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.5; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.blackberry.com) is looking at alternatives for increasing shareholder value. Options the company is examining include the sale of some or all of its operations and joint ventures with other firms.

That’s because its new smartphones, powered by its BlackBerry 10 software, continue to face intense competition from Apple’s iPhone and devices running Google’s Android operating system.

The company will probably complete this review quickly. If not, the uncertainty may prompt its corporate and government clients to switch to competing wireless email systems.
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CANADA BREAD CO. LTD. $59 (Toronto symbol CBY; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 25.4 million; Market cap: $1.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.0; Dividend yield: 3.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.canadabread.ca) is Canada’s secondlargest producer of fresh and frozen baked goods, after Weston Bakery. The company also makes pastas and sauces. The company’s main brands include Dempster, Tenderflake and Olivieri. Canada Bread supplies around a third of Maple Leaf’s total sales.

The company is also investing in new facilities as part of Maple Leaf’s restructuring. In 2011, Canada Bread opened a new $100-million bakery in Hamilton, Ontario. That let it close two outdated facilities in Toronto and shift their production to the new plant. Earlier this year, it closed a third Toronto bakery.

In the second quarter of 2013, Canada Bread earned $24.5 million, or $0.97 a share. That’s down 6.0% from $26.1 million, or $1.03 a share, a year earlier. Excluding unusual items, earnings per share rose 0.9%, to $1.07 from $1.06.
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MAPLE LEAF FOODS INC. $14 (Toronto symbol MFI; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 140.0 million; Market cap: $2.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.4; Dividend yield: 1.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.mapleleaf.ca) is Canada’s largest food processing company. It mainly sells its products, which include fresh and prepared meats and poultry, under the Maple Leaf and Schneider brands. Though 90.0%-owned Canada Bread (see right), the company also makes fresh and frozen bread, pastries and pasta.

Maple Leaf continues to make progress on a major restructuring plan that includes building new plants and eliminating unprofitable products. As part of this strategy, Maple Leaf recently sold its Ontario turkey farms for a combined $48.2 million under two separate deals. The company is also installing a new computer system that will give its managers more timely information.

In the three months ended June 30, 2013, Maple Leaf earned $9,000, or a loss of $0.02 a share. A year earlier, it earned $26.0 million, or $0.16 a share. If you exclude unusual items, such as severance costs and writedowns, earnings per share fell 91.3%, to $0.02 from $0.23.
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RIOCAN REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST $24 (Toronto symbol REI.UN; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Units outstanding: 302.6 million; Market cap: $7.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.5; Dividend yield: 5.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.riocan.com) owns 348 retail properties in Canada, including 15 under development. It also owns 50 malls in the U.S.

The trust continues to expand through acquisitions. In the second quarter of 2013, RioCan acquired seven properties for $460 million. As part of its plan to focus on larger cities, RioCan also sold four properties in smaller markets for $364 million. As a result, big cities now account for 72.1% of its rental revenue, up from 67.5% at the end of 2012.

These new properties are also diversifying RioCan’s portfolio beyond its suburban big-box-style malls. For example, its recent purchases include two enclosed malls in Ontario. The trust is also redeveloping certain properties in Toronto as mixed-use office, retail and residential complexes.
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CANADIAN TIRE CORP. $91 (Toronto symbol CTC.A; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 80.5 million; Market cap: $7.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.6; Dividend yield: 1.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.canadiantire.ca) operates 490 Canadian Tire stores, which specialize in automotive, household and sporting goods. The company owns these outlets, but franchisees operate most of them. Canadian Tire also operates 300 gas stations and 87 PartSource auto parts stores.

In the 1990s, big U.S. retailers like Wal-Mart and Home Depot expanded to Canada. In response, Canadian Tire upgraded its stores with better signage, wider aisles and brighter lighting. These improvements also made it easier for managers to move faster-selling seasonal merchandise to high-traffic areas of the store.

The company is also trying out new formats. For example, it recently opened a smaller store in Toronto. This outlet, called Canadian Tire Express, is one-third the size of a regular Canadian Tire store and mainly features items like light bulbs and plumbing parts instead of tires and lawnmowers.
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