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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In 2013, the company earned a record $3.34 a share, up 49.1% from $2.24 in 2012. Sales rose 11.6%, to a record $3.6 billion from $3.2 billion.
The company also raised its quarterly dividend by 25.0%, from $0.08 a share to $0.10. The stock has nearly doubled in the past year, which is why the new annual rate of $0.40 yields just 0.8%. However, the stock is still attractive at 13.1 times Linamar’s likely 2014 earnings of $3.83 a share.
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In its fiscal 2014 first quarter, which ended January 31, 2014, Nordion’s earnings jumped to $36.5 million, or $0.59 a share (all amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). A year earlier, it earned $2.9 million, or $0.05 a share. The gain was partly due to positive exchange rates, which added $0.31 to the latest per-share earnings.
These figures exclude unusual items, such as costs related to the company’s strategic review. As part of this process, Nordion sold its Targeted Therapies division for $190 million in July 2013. This business makes TheraSphere, a process for treating liver cancer using millions of microscopic glass beads containing radioactive materials.
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In response to weak sales of its new BlackBerry 10 smartphones, the company is cutting 40% of its workforce and selling most of its Canadian real estate, mainly buildings near its Waterloo, Ontario, headquarters. It will lease back some of these properties after the sale.
As well, BlackBerry has signed a new five-year deal with Taiwan-based electronics maker Foxconn. Under this agreement, BlackBerry and Foxconn will jointly develop new smartphones, particularly for fast-growing markets like Indonesia. Foxconn will also assume responsibility for making these phones, which should help BlackBerry better manage its inventories and avoid costly writedowns of unsold phones.
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Capri’s two plants generate $72 million U.S. of annual revenue. Transcontinental feels its commercial printing expertise will help it make Capri more efficient.
Acquisitions always expose the buyer to hidden risks. However, Transcontinental has signed a 10-year deal to supply packaging to dairy producer Schreiber Foods, Capri’s parent company. Schreiber accounts for 75% of Capri’s revenue, so this acquisition is safer than it looks.
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The company sells these products to customers in the mining, forest products and construction industries in Western Canada (50% of revenue, 47% of earnings), South America (37%, 45%) and the U.K. (13%, 8%).
Finning’s revenue rose 50.8%, from $4.5 billion in 2009 to $6.7 billion in 2013. That’s largely because prices for commodi- ties, like oil and coal, rebounded strongly after the recession, spurring heavy equipment demand.
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