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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CANADIAN NATIONAL RAILWAY CO. $73 (www.cn.ca) faces several challenges, including falling crude-by-rail volumes and higher safety-related costs. However, CN continues to improve its efficiency with new locomotives and tracks....
LOBLAW COMPANIES LTD. $64 (Toronto symbol L; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 412.6 million; Market cap: $26.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.6; Dividend yield: 1.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.loblaw.ca) is Canada’s largest food retailer, with 1,140 stores. Its banners include Loblaws, Provigo, Fortinos, Real Canadian Superstore and No Frills. George Weston Ltd. (Toronto symbol WN) owns 46% of Loblaw.

In March 2014, the company acquired the 1,250-store Shoppers Drug Mart chain for $12.3 billion in cash and shares. Thanks largely to this purchase, Loblaw’s sales jumped 38.2%, from $30.8 billion in 2010 to $42.6 billion in 2014.

Merger savings help pay down debt

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BOMBARDIER INC. (Toronto symbols BBD.A $2.55 and BBD.B $2.53; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 1.7 billion; Market cap: $4.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.3; Dividend suspended in February 2015; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; www.bombardier.com) plans to sell shares in its transportation division to the public. This business makes passenger railcars and accounts for 45% of Bombardier’s total revenue.

The company expects to complete the sale in the fourth quarter of 2015. The new shares will mainly trade on Germany’s stock exchange because that’s where this business is based. Bombardier will retain a majority stake in this new company.

Bombardier also recently suspended its dividend and sold new shares to shore up its balance sheet. The cash should help the company finish developing its new CSeries jet. Bombardier has firm orders for 243 CSeries planes. If buyers exercise their options and other agreements, that figure would rise to 603 aircraft with a total value of about $39 billion U.S.

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METRO INC. $34 (Toronto symbol MRU; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 246.9 million; Market cap: $8.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.7; Dividend yield: 1.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.metro.ca) plans to spend $300 million to build new supermarkets and upgrade existing stores in its 2015 fiscal year, which ends September 30, 2015. That’s up 47.8% from $203 million in fiscal 2014.

These investments should help Metro reach its long-term goal of increasing its annual sales by 2% to 4% and earnings per share by 8% to 10%.

Metro is a buy.

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CENOVUS ENERGY INC. $21 (Toronto symbol CVE; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 828.4 million; Market cap: $17.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.9; Dividend yield: 5.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.cenovus.com) has temporarily shut down its Foster Creek oil sands project in northern Alberta, as forest fires in the area are hindering traffic on the main access road to the site.

Cenovus own 50% of Foster Creek, while U.S.-based ConocoPhillips (New York symbol COP) owns the other 50%. In the first quarter of 2015, Cenovus’s share of this project’s output was 68,000 barrels a day, or 31% of its total daily oil production of 218,000 barrels.

The fires have also forced other oil projects in Alberta to close. In all, these operations account for 9% of the province’s total production. However, the shutdowns have increased the spot price of Western Canadian crude, which should help Cenovus offset the lost revenue.

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CAE INC. $15 (Toronto symbol CAE; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 267.2 million; Market cap: $4.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.8; Dividend yield: 1.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.cae.com) has won a new contract to train pilots for the U.S. Army and Air Force. As a result, the company will build a new training facility at Dothan Regional Airport in Alabama.

This eight-year deal is worth $200 million U.S. To put that in context, CAE’s revenue was $2.2 billion (Canadian) in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2015. Military clients supply about 40% of the company’s revenue, which cuts its reliance on selling flight simulators to cyclical commercial airlines.

CAE is our #1 buy for 2015.

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IGM FINANCIAL INC. $42 (Toronto symbol IGM; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 248.5 million; Market cap: $10.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.5; Dividend yield: 5.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.igmfinancial.com) is Canada’s largest independent mutual fund company, with $148.5 billion of assets under management. Power Financial owns 59.1% of IGM.

In the first quarter of 2015, IGM’s earnings rose 3.0%, to $200.3 million from $194.4 million a year earlier. Per-share earnings gained 3.9%, to $0.80 from $0.77, on fewer shares outstanding. Revenue increased 6.4%, to $760.9 million from $714.8 million. Sales of mutual funds (net of redemptions) fell 12.0%, but rising stock markets pushed up assets under management by 8.1%.

The Canadian Medical Association recently dropped Mackenzie and other firms as sub-advisors on some of the bond funds it sells to its members. That will cut IGM’s assets under management by $10 billion. However, based on the fees it earns from this client, the impact on its earnings is small. The stock trades at just 12.5 times the $3.36 a share that IGM will likely earn in 2015. The $2.25 dividend yields 5.4%.

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