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.
[text_ad]
Read More
Close
Dividend Stocks Library Archive
LOBLAW COMPANIES LTD., $33.10, Toronto symbol L, has signed a new long-term deal with Towers Watson, a private firm that helps Canadian companies manage their employees’ health benefits. Under the agreement, Loblaw’s in-store pharmacies will offer special discounts to Towers Watson’s clients, which together employ over 30,000 people. These discounts should draw more shoppers to Loblaw’s stores and more than offset the lost revenue. Roughly half of Loblaw’s 1,000 supermarkets now have in-store pharmacies. Meanwhile, the company earned $222 million, or $0.79 a share, in the three months ended October 6, 2012. That’s down 5.9% from $236 million, or $0.84 a share, a year earlier. Even with the decline, the latest earnings beat the consensus estimate of $0.78 a share....
BOMBARDIER INC., Toronto symbols BBD.A $3.51 and BBD.B $3.43, is having trouble getting enough parts from suppliers to build its new CSeries passenger jet. As a result, the company has delayed the new aircraft’s first test flight from the end of this year to June 2013. It still expects to deliver the first CSeries plane by the end of 2013. As well, slowing demand for its passenger railcars has prompted the company to cut 3% of this division’s workforce, including closing a plant in Germany. Severance and other costs will probably total $150 million (all amounts except share prices in U.S. dollars) in the fourth quarter of 2012. The company did not say how much these moves would save it. Meanwhile, Bombardier earned $209 million, or $0.12 a share, on sales of $4.3 billion in the three months ended September 30, 2012. The latest earnings beat the consensus estimate of $0.11 a share....
Encana, a long-time favourite of ours, was a pioneer in the development of unconventional gas reserves (also called “tight gas”). This is natural gas that is trapped in rock formations. However, as the technology to extract tight gas improved, gas production ballooned. This rise in gas production, along with warmer-than-normal winter weather, pushed down gas prices. This in turn depressed Encana’s earnings and stock price. We feel Encana’s large gas reserves offer a lot of long-term value. It seems ExxonMobil Corp. (New York symbol XOM), the world’s largest oil company, agrees. It’s buying Celtic Explorations Ltd. (Toronto symbol CLT), which owns tight gas reserves along the B.C.-Alberta border, near Encana’s properties. That spurred speculation that Encana may also become a takeover target. ENCANA CORP. $22 (Toronto symbol ECA; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 736.3 million; Market cap: $16.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.5; Dividend yield: 3.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.encana.com) is one of North America’s largest natural gas producers. The U.S. accounts for 55% of Encana’s production, while Canada supplies the remaining 45%. The company’s proven reserves should last over 14 years. If you include properties where estimates are less well defined, Encana’s reserves could last 50 years....
RIOCAN REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST $27 (Toronto symbol REI.UN; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Units outstanding: 298.6 million; Market cap: $8.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 5.0; Dividend yield: 5.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.riocan.com) has completed its deal to buy full control of 21 shopping malls in the U.S. from Cedar Shopping Centers, Inc. (New York symbol CDR).Previously, RioCan had an 80% stake in these malls through a joint venture with Cedar. It now owns 49 malls in the U.S., and 289 in Canada. RioCan paid $39.0 million U.S. for these properties. To put that price in context, it earned $125 million (Canadian) in the three months ended September 30, 2012. That’s down 25.6% from $168 million a year earlier. Earnings per unit fell 33.3%, to $0.42 from $0.63, on more units outstanding. However, the best way to assess a real estate investment trust’s operating performance is to look at its cash flow. That’s because it excludes nonrecurring items, like gains on the sale of real estate. RioCan’s cash flow rose 18.6% in the quarter, to a record $115 million from $97 million. Cash flow per unit rose 8.1%, to $0.40 from $0.37....
Consumers continue to rely more on online information sources and less on newspapers and magazines. In response, many publishers are finding new ways to sell their content on the Internet. These three are leading the way, thanks to their strong brands and profitable niche markets. That, along with their ongoing cost cuts, should help them offset lower revenue from their printed products. THOMSON REUTERS CORP. $28 (Toronto symbol TRI; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 825.9 million; Market cap: $23.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.6; Dividend yield: 4.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.thomsonreuters.com) gets 56% of its revenue and 45% of its earnings by selling news and information to professionals in the banking industry. It also sells specialized information products to clients in the legal, accounting and scientific-research fields. Slow economic growth and tighter regulations are prompting banks and brokerage firms to cut their spending on information products. Thomson Reuters is also spending more to improve the performance of, and add new features to, its Eikon desktop computer terminals, which deliver news and financial data to traders and portfolio managers....
TRANSCANADA CORP. $45 (Toronto symbol TRP; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 705.0 million; Market cap: $31.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.6; Dividend yield: 3.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.transcanada.com) has won contracts to build and operate two pipelines that will supply natural gas to government-owned power plants in Mexico. These lines will cost $1.4 billion U.S., and should begin operating in 2016. TransCanada has 25-year contracts with Mexico’s federal power company, which cuts the risk of these investments. These deals should help the company win even more business as Mexico continues to convert its power plants from coal to gas. TransCanada is a buy.
PENGROWTH ENERGY CORP. $5.59 (Toronto symbol PGF; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 507.1 million; Market cap: $2.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.8; Dividend yield: 8.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.pengrowth.com) has suffered from low natural gas prices, same as Encana. That’s why in May 2012 it bought NAL Energy Corp., which gets roughly half of its production from higher-priced oil. Thanks to this purchase, Pengrowth’s daily production rose 26.4% in the three months ended September 30, 2012, to a record 94,284 barrels of oil equivalent from 74,568 a year ago. Natural gas accounted for 60% of its production, down from 63% a year earlier. Depressed natural gas prices pushed down Pengrowth’s cash flow by 6.2% in the quarter, to $141.1 million from $150.4 million a year earlier. Cash flow per share fell 39.1%, to $0.28 from $0.46, on more shares outstanding. Even so, the extra production from NAL should let Pengrowth keep paying monthly dividends of $0.04 a share (for an 8.6% annualized yield). Pengrowth is still a buy.
BELL ALIANT INC. $27 (Toronto symbol BA, Conservative Growth Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 227.8 million; Market cap: $6.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.2; Dividend yield: 7.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.bellaliant.ca) ells telephone and Internet services to 2.5 million customers in Atlantic Canada, as well as rural parts of Ontario and Quebec. It also sells wireless services through an alliance with BCE, which owns 45% of Bell Aliant. The company continues to replace its copper-wire cables with fibre optic lines. This lets it sell more high-speed Internet and digital TV subscriptions, and offset declining sales of its regular phone services, which still supply 60% of its revenue. Bell Aliant expects to spend $550 million to $600 million on network upgrades in 2012, compared to $573 million in 2011. Its fibre optic systems now reach 621,000 homes. The company plans to increase that to 650,000 by the end of 2012....
Demand for more and better food continues to rise in developing countries. That will keep spurring fertilizer sales. We feel the best way to profit from this trend is with well-established fertilizer producers like Potash Corp. and Agrium. Both are attractive in relation to earnings, and both are raising their dividends. POTASH CORP. OF SASKATCHEWAN $40 (Toronto symbol POT; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 861.6 million; Market cap: $34.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.1; Dividend yield: 2.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.potashcorp.com) is the world’s largest fertilizer producer. It has six potash mines in Saskatchewan and one in New Brunswick. The company has faced delays in securing new supply contracts with buyers in China. That has lowered its potash shipments. As well, the Indian government has cut fertilizer subsidies....
SUNCOR ENERGY INC. $34 (Toronto symbol SU; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 1.5 billion; Market cap: $51.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.3; Dividend yield: 1.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.suncor.com) will spend $6.65 billion to upgrade its operations in 2012, down 11.3% from its earlier forecast of $7.5 billion. That’s mainly due to lowerthan- expected costs to expand its Firebag oil sands project in Alberta. The new addition should begin operating by the end of 2012—three months ahead of schedule. The recent drop in oil prices has also prompted Suncor to slow the development of three other big oil sands projects. However, lower oil prices are boosting profits at Suncor’s refineries. As a result, cash flow per share rose 2.9% in the three months ended September 30, 2012, to $1.78 from $1.73 a year earlier. Suncor is a buy.