Dividend Stocks

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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Dividend Stocks Library Archive
LOBLAW COMPANIES LTD. $63 (Toronto symbol L; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 412.5 million; Market cap: $26.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.6; Dividend yield: 1.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.loblaw.ca) continues to benefit from its March 2014 purchase of the 1,250-store Shoppers Drug Mart chain for $12.3 billion in cash and stock. In the three months ended March 28, 2015, the company’s overall sales jumped 37.8%, to $10.0 billion from $7.3 billion a year earlier. Shoppers contributed $2.6 billion to the latest quarterly sales. Same-store sales at Loblaw’s supermarkets rose 4.0%, excluding gasoline sales. Shoppers’ same-store sales gained 3.1%. Without unusual items, earnings jumped 96.7%, to $301 million from $153 million. Per-share profits rose 35.2%, to $0.73 from $0.54, on more shares outstanding....
MAPLE LEAF FOODS INC. $23 (Toronto symbol MFI; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 143.1 million; Market cap: $3.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.0; Dividend yield: 1.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.mapleleaf.ca) is Canada’s largest food processing company. It mainly sells its products, including fresh and prepared meats and poultry, under the Maple Leaf and Schneider brands. Maple Leaf is close to finishing an overhaul of its meat-processing operations that mainly involves closing older plants and shifting their operations to newer facilities. It has also cut the number of warehouses in its distribution business from 19 to two. The company is beginning to benefit from this plan: in the three months ended March 31, 2015, it lost $2.9 million, or $0.02 a share, compared to a year-ago loss of $132.9 million, or $0.95. If you exclude restructuring costs, Maple Leaf earned $0.05 a share in the latest quarter....
Imperial Oil and Suncor (see box) continue to expand their oil sands projects in the face of low oil prices. Alberta’s new NDP government could also increase royalties or impose new environmental regulations. However, these projects should last decades. As well, both Suncor and Imperial also operate refineries, which are seeing higher profits thanks to the oil-price drop. IMPERIAL OIL LTD. $49 (Toronto symbol IMO; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios; Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 848.0 million; Market cap: $41.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.3; Dividend yield: 1.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.imperialoil.ca) produced an average of 333,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day (93% oil and 7% natural gas) in the first quarter of 2015, up 0.9% from a year earlier....
SUNCOR ENERGY INC. $36 (Toronto symbol SU; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 1.5 billion; Market cap: $54.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.4; Dividend yield: 3.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.suncor.com) has started work on its Fort Hills oil sands project in northern Alberta. Suncor owns 40.8% of Fort Hills; France’s Total SA holds 39.2%, while Teck Resources owns the remaining 20.0%. This $13.5-billion project (Suncor’s share is $5.5 billion) should start up in late 2017, and its reserves should last 50 years. The company produced 602,400 barrels a day in the first quarter of 2015, up 10.5% from 545,300 a year earlier. That’s mainly because shut downs for maintenance hurt last year’s output. However, lower oil prices cut Suncor’s earnings by 90.2%, to $175 million, or $0.12 a share, from $1.8 billion, or $1.22. Cash flow per share fell 48.0%, to $1.02 from $1.96....
THOMSON REUTERS CORP. $48 (Toronto symbol TRI; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 784.8 million; Market cap: $37.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.0; Dividend yield: 3.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.thomsonreuters.com) (All amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars) now plans to buy back up to $1 billion worth of its shares by the end of 2016. Meantime, the company’s revenue fell 2.7% in the three months ended March 31, 2015, to $3.0 billion from $3.1 billion a year earlier. Without the effect of the high U.S. dollar, revenue rose 2%. Earnings per share declined 4.3%, or $0.44 from $0.46, but gained 8.7% if you disregard changes in currency exchange rates. Banks and brokerages are buying more of Thomson’s information products. Sales to tax, accounting and legal professionals also remain strong....
PENGROWTH ENERGY CORP. $3.74 (Toronto symbol PGF; Aggressive Growth and Income Portfolios, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 538.0 million; Market cap: $2.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.7; Dividend yield: 6.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.pengrowth.com) recently started up its Lindbergh oil sands project in eastern Alberta, which should produce 16,000 barrels a day by the end of 2015. The company has shut down less profitable wells in response to weak oil and gas prices. That’s why its average production fell 7.7% in the first quarter of 2015, to 69,334 barrels a day (52% oil and liquids, 48% gas) from 75,102 a year earlier. Without unusual items, Pengrowth earned $64.8 million, compared to a loss of $2.8 million. Cash flow per share fell 22.2%, to $0.21 from $0.27. For the remainder of 2015, the company has hedged 78% of its oil production at $93.87 (Canadian) a barrel, well above today’s price of $60.16 U.S. It has also hedged 57% of its gas output at $3.72 (Canadian) per thousand cubic feet, compared to the current price of $2.94 U.S. The company’s hedges were worth $354.3 million as of March 31, 2015....
HOME CAPITAL GROUP INC. $43 (Toronto symbol HCG; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 70.2 million; Market cap; $3.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 5.2; Dividend yield: 2.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www. homecapital.com) provides mortgages to borrowers who don’t meet the stricter standards of larger, traditional lenders, like banks. Clients include self-employed people and recent immigrants with limited credit histories. Low interest rates continue to fuel mortgage demand. As a result, Home Capital’s revenue rose 47.6%, from $687.2 million in 2010 to $1.01 billion in 2014. Earnings jumped 86.4%, from $154.8 million to $288.4 million, while per-share profits gained 84.2%, from $2.22 to $4.09. In the first quarter of 2015, the company’s revenue rose 0.5%, to $249.2 million from $247.9 million a year earlier. Earnings gained 3.7%, to $72.3 million, or $1.03 a share, from $69.7 million, or $1.00. Humans beat computers...
TELUS CORP. $42 (www.telus.com) continues to benefit from strong demand for wireless services. As of March 31, 2015, it had 8.3 million wireless subscribers, up 3.1% from a year earlier. In addition, more of these users are upgrading to smartphones under long-term contracts, which generate higher profits for Telus than regular cellphones....
BOMBARDIER INC., Toronto symbols BBD.A $2.65 and BBD.B $2.63, plans to sell shares in its transportation division to the public. This business makes passenger railcars and accounts for 45% of Bombardier’s total revenue. The company expects to complete the sale in the fourth quarter of 2015. The new shares will mainly trade on Germany’s stock exchange because that’s where this business is based. Bombardier will hang on to a majority stake. Meanwhile, the company earned $170 million, or $0.09 a share, in the first quarter of 2015 (all amounts except share price in U.S. dollars). These figures exclude unusual items, such as costs related to its recent decision to suspend development of the Learjet 85 business jet. On that basis, the latest earnings beat the consensus estimate of $0.05 a share. They are also up 12.6% from $151 million, or $0.08 a share, a year earlier. Revenue gained 1.0%, to $4.40 billion from $4.35 billion....
BCE INC., $53.88, Toronto symbol BCE, reported higher-than-expected quarterly results this week. In the three months ended March 31, 2015, the company’s overall earnings rose 12.6%, to $705 million from $626 million a year earlier. But per-share profits gained just 3.7%, to $0.84 from $0.81, on more shares outstanding. These figures exclude unusual items, such as costs to integrate BCE’s November 2014 purchase of the 56% of Bell Aliant it didn’t already own. On that basis, the latest earnings beat the consensus estimate of $0.79 a share....