14 years of dividend hikes

Article Excerpt

CANADIAN TIRE CORP. (class A non-voting) is a buy. The retailer (Toronto symbols CTC $280 and CTC.A $144; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 60.8 million; Market cap: $8.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.5; Dividend yield: 4.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.canadiantire.ca) operates several chains aside from Canadian Tire (automotive part, household and sporting goods). They include PartSource (auto parts), Party City (party supplies) in Canada, Mark’s (casual and work clothing) and Sport Chek (sporting goods and athletic wear). With the March 2024 payment, the company will raise your quarterly dividend by 1.4%, to $1.75 a share from $1.725. The new annual rate of $7.00 yields a high 4.9% for the class A shares. With this increase, the company has now raised that payment each year for the past 14 years. What’s more, Canadian Tire plans to buy back $200.0 million of its class A shares in 2024. That’s on top of the $470.0 million it spent on buybacks under the previous plan. The company’s earnings will probably…