Lower costs support your dividend

Article Excerpt

METRO INC. $58 is a buy. The company (Toronto symbol MRU; High-Growth Dividend Payer Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding 251.8 million; Market cap: $14.6 billion; Dividend yield: 1.6%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Highest; www.metro.ca) operates 600 grocery stores and 650 drugstores, in Quebec, Ontario and New Brunswick. With the March 2020 payment, Metro raised your quarterly dividend by 12.5%. The new annual rate of $0.90 a share yields 1.6%. The supermarket operator recently ended the $2-an-hour pay increase that it brought in at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now that the situation has stabilized and sales and customer traffic levels are reverting to normal levels, the company feels the bonus is no longer necessary. As well, Metro’s main competitors have also stopped paying bonuses, so continuing the plan would put Metro at a competitive disadvantage. Metro is a buy. buy…