TSI’s Scott Clayton presents seven standout acquisition-focused companies for your review. Each firm’s proven dividend track record earned top marks from our Dividend Sustainability Rating System by reflecting resilience and growth potential through strategic transactions. These names combine reliable income with upside from deal-driven expansion. In fact, our Globe and Mail feature details the 12-point framework Scott used to identify the most promising acquisition-driven dividend stocks. We’ve highlighted those best positioned to enhance shareholder value beyond today’s market moves.
Our acquisition screen began with firms capable of leveraging large-scale deals to strengthen market position while maintaining solid sales and profits. Companies earned high scores by delivering five or more years of dividend payments, raising payouts recently, prioritizing shareholder returns, and maintaining robust balance sheets. Long-term earnings power, post-deal cash-flow coverage, industry leadership, and freedom from political or currency risk were essential. Only those with the strongest sustainability attributes made the list.
Keep reading for the results: seven compelling acquisition-focused picks which span diverse operations: energy infrastructure to medical technology and communications equipment. These names reflect successful integrations where management has demonstrated its capacity to enhance returns through acquisitions while preserving dividend reliability. They also showcase management’s ability to convert deal momentum into durable shareholder value, even if markets churn.
Excerpt from theglobeandmail.com, October 9, 2025
Sustainable dividends from companies successfully using large acquisitions to enhance their market position.
Shares of Cenovus Energy Inc. have moved up since the company announced a takeover bid for rival MEG Energy Corp. in August. Its move this week to increase that offer ultimately carried the stock even higher after an initial dip on the news.
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MEG should be a good fit for Cenovus given it holds an oil sands property near Cenovus’s current operations at Christina Lake in northern Alberta. The proximity would let the merged company pare back costs while boosting cash flow.
Our analysts at The Successful Investor point out that growth by acquisition often adds risk. Still, top firms can cut that risk by targeting smaller purchases or – as in Cenovus’s case – by buying proven assets that complement their existing operations.
Our search started with U.S. and Canadian firms that have recently undertaken major acquisitions to expand their operations and to spur profitability. We then applied our TSI Dividend Sustainability Rating System to those also offering shareholder dividends. Our system awards points to a stock based on key factors:
- One point for five years of continuous dividend payments
- Two points for more than five
- Two points if it has raised the payment in the past five years
- One point for management’s commitment to dividends
- One point for operating in non-cyclical industries
- One point for limited exposure to foreign currency rates and freedom from political interference
- Two points for a strong balance sheet, including manageable debt and adequate cash
- Two points for a long-term record of positive earnings and cash flow sufficient to cover dividend payments
- One point for an industry leader
Companies with 10 to 12 points have the most secure dividends, or the highest sustainability. Those with seven to nine points have above average sustainability; average sustainability, four to six points; and below average sustainability, one to three points.
TSI Network is the online home of The Successful Investor Inc. – the group of widely followed Canadian investment newsletters by editor and publisher Pat McKeough. They include our award-winning flagship newsletter, The Successful Investor, and the TSI Dividend Advisor. TSI Network is also affiliated with Successful Investor Wealth Management.
Sustainable dividends from 5 acquisition-driven winners
Calgary’s Cenovus Energy (with a 3.3% yield) is one of Canada’s largest producers of oil and natural gas and is set to gain if it successfully acquires Meg Energy.
Stryker Corporation (0.9%), based in Michigan, is one of the world’s leading medical technology companies. The firm completed the acquisition of Inari Medical in February 2025 for $4.9 billion. Inari’s innovative products should integrate well with Stryker’s Neurovascular business.
Motorola Solutions Inc. (1.0%), headquartered in Chicago, makes communications equipment such as two-way radios for police and fire vehicles, as well as high-definition surveillance systems. In August 2025, Motorola bought Silvus Technologies Inc. for $4.4 billion (plus a further $600 million contingent on future performance). That firm will complement Motorola’s product lineup with its specialized communications equipment for military and law enforcement clients.
Based in Calgary, Keyera Corporation (4.7%) engages in the gathering and processing of natural gas; plus the transportation, storage, and marketing of natural gas liquids (NGLs) in Canada and the U.S. In June 2025, the company agreed to acquire the Canadian NGL business of Plains All American Pipeline LP and other assets for $5.15 billion. The deal should bolster Keyera’s scale and widen its reach into Eastern Canada.
Eaton Corp. PLC (1.1%), headquartered in Ireland, is a power management company. It serves many markets: datacentre, utility, industrial, commercial, machine building, residential, aerospace and mobility. In June 2025, it agreed to acquire Ultra PCS Limited, a U.K.-based provider of electronic controls, pneumatic systems and data processing solutions for global aerospace customers. Eaton paid $1.55 billion.
Baltimore-based Constellation Energy Corp. (0.4%) is the largest producer of emissions-free energy in the U.S. Constellation is now buying Calpine Corp. for $16.4 billion. Calpine owns and operates a collection of natural gas, geothermal, battery storage, and solar assets. The merger creates the largest clean energy provider in the U.S. It opens opportunities for Constellation to serve more customers, coast-to-coast, with an expanded array of energy products. (Note—Constellation’s meagre dividend yield reflects this year’s strong share price growth.)
Baker Hughes Company (1.9%), headquartered in Houston, is an energy technology company serving customers worldwide. It is now purchasing Chart Industries for $13.6 billion. Chart designs and makes technologies and equipment for gas and liquid molecule-handling. It should be a strong fit for Baker Hughes, in part because of its growing focus on the liquefied natural gas market – one of the fastest-growing areas in energy.
We advise investors to do additional research on investments we identify here.
Scott Clayton, MBA, is senior analyst for TSI Network and associate editor of TSI Dividend Advisor.
