Dividend Stocks
Dividend stocks make cash payouts that serve as a way for companies to share the wealth they’ve accumulated. These payouts are drawn from earnings and cash flow and paid to the shareholders of the company. Typically, these dividends are paid quarterly, although they may be paid annually or even monthly as well.

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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Dividend Stocks
Bank of Montreal $63 - Toronto symbol BMO
BANK OF MONTREAL $63 (Toronto symbol BMO; SI Rating: Above average) is the fourthlargest Canadian bank, with assets of $297.5 billion. The bank earned $1.27 a share (total $657 million) in its fourth fiscal quarter ended October 31, 2005, up 19.8% from $1.06 ($551 million) a year earlier. The latest results include $43 million in one-time gains from the sale of its U.S. online banking business and other assets; the year-earlier period includes $24 million in non-recurring gains. Revenue in the quarter rose 15.2%, to $2.65 billion from $2.3 billion. Strong gains from Canadian operations offset slower growth in the U.S. Bank of Montreal is doing a good job selling investment products and other services to its retail banking customers. However, the bank is recovering fewer loans that it had already written off in prior years. It set aside $57 million for loan losses in the fourth quarter; a year earlier, it cut its total loan loss provisions by $13 million. Although provisions will probably rise in the next year, they’re still well below the peak of the first two years of this decade....
1 min read
Pat McKeough
Dividend Stocks
Bank of Nova Scotia $47 - Toronto symbol BNS
BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA $47 (Toronto symbol BNS; SI Rating: Above average) is Canada’s third-largest bank, with assets of $314.0 billion. In its fourth fiscal quarter ended October 31, 2005, earnings grew 15.9%, to $0.80 a share (total $811 million) from $0.69 ($705 million) a year earlier, due to gains in retail, wealth management and international operations. Excluding onetime items, the bank earned $0.77 a share in the latest quarter. Revenue rose 9.6%, to $2.74 billion from $2.5 billion. In the past five years, Bank of Nova Scotia has spent over $800 million on international acquisitions, mostly in the Caribbean and Latin America. These operations now provide about a third of its net income. This makes it the most international of Canada’s big five banks....
1 min read
Pat McKeough
Dividend Stocks
Toronto-Dominion Bank $60 - Toronto symbol TD
TORONTO-DOMINION BANK $60 (Toronto symbol TD; SI Rating: Above average) is Canada’s second-largest bank, with $365.2 billion in assets. In its fourth fiscal quarter ended October 31, 2005, TD’s earnings fell 8.9% to $0.82 a share (total $589 million) from $0.90 a share ($595 million) a year earlier. If you disregard unusual items, per share earnings improved 16.5%, to $1.06 from $0.91. Revenue rose 19.2%, to $3.1 billion from $2.6 billion. TD feels that U.S. banking offers an opportunity to expand its profits. Last year it paid about $5 billion for a controlling stake in U.S.-based Banknorth Group Inc. (now called TD Banknorth). This subsidiary now plans to pay $1.9 billion U.S. for Hudson United Bankcorp, which operates over 200 branches in the New York City area. Meanwhile, TD plans to sell the U.S. operations of its TD Waterhouse online brokerage to rival Ameritrade. In exchange, TD will receive 32% of Ameritrade. It will also acquire Ameritrade’s Canadian brokerage business for $60 million U.S....
1 min read
Pat McKeough
Dividend Stocks
Royal Bank of Canada $88 - Toronto symbol RY
ROYAL BANK OF CANADA $88 (Toronto symbol RY; SI Rating: Above average) is the largest of Canada’s big five banks, with total assets of $469.5 billion. In its fourth fiscal quarter ended October 31, 2005, Royal set aside $591 million to cover possible lawsuit settlements related to its involvement with U.S. energy trader Enron Corp. It also set aside $203 million more to cover costs at its U.S. insurance operations related to three major hurricanes. These charges cut Royal’s net income from continuing operations in the fourth quarter by 21.9%, to $0.82 a share (total $543 million) from $1.05 ($687 million) a year earlier. If you disregard all unusual charges, per-share earnings grew 18.3%, to $1.68 from $1.42. Revenue rose 4.3%, to $4.8 billion from $4.6 billion....
1 min read
Pat McKeough
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