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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BCE INC., $32.33, is a buy. The company (Toronto symbol BCE; Shares outstanding: 932.5 million; Market cap: $30.2 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Yield: 5.4%) recently completed its $3.65 billion U.S. purchase of Ziply Fiber, which offers high-speed Internet access and telephone services through a fibre-optic network to residential and business customers in Washington State, Oregon, Idaho and Montana.
MANULIFE FINANCIAL, $50.71, is a buy. This safety-conscious stock (Toronto symbol MFC; Shares outstanding: 1.7 billion; Market cap: $85.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 3.5%; www.manulife.ca) represents one of Canada’s largest life insurers. It’s also a leading insurer in Vietnam, Cambodia, Singapore, and the Philippines. On September 30, 2025, the insurer had $1.69 trillion in assets under administration.
DREAM OFFICE REIT, $17.19, is a buy. The REIT (Toronto symbol D.UN; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (www.dream.ca/office; Units o/s: 16.4 million; Market cap: $281.9 million; Dividend yield: 5.8%) owns 26 office properties including two under development.
ALTAGAS LTD., $41.21, is a buy. The utility (Toronto symbol ALA; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (www.altagas.ca; Shares outstanding: 311.1 million; Market cap: $12.6 billion; Dividend yield: 3.3%) processes, transports, stores and markets natural gas for producers. It also operates its own natural gas utilities and is a power generator, with gas-fired, coal-fired, wind, biomass and hydroelectric plants.
You can’t fake a record of dividends. That’s why we place a high value on a sustained history of dividend payments. When you’re looking for income-producing stocks, a high dividend yield should also be one of your most important investment considerations. But that shouldn’t come at the expense of sustainability.