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
AGRIUM INC. $100 (Toronto symbol AGU; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 157.9 million; Market cap: $15.8 billion; SI Rating: Average) hopes to build a nitrogen plant on the north coast of Egypt. However, environmental opposition could force Agrium to re-locate the plant, sell its 60% stake to its state-owned joint venture partner, or abandon the project altogether. Agrium may have to write off the $280 million it has already spent on the project, unless it can reach a new agreement with the Egyptian government (all amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). Agrium earned $195 million or $1.23 a share in the three months ended March 31, 2008. Agrium is still a hold.
BCE INC. $39 (Toronto symbol BCE; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 805.3 million; Market cap: $31.4 billion; SI Rating: Above average) now aims to complete its sale to a group of private investors headed by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan by December 11, 2008. The consortium will still pay $42.75 a share, but BCE has agreed to stop paying dividends to its common shareholders. Suspending dividends will save BCE about $900 million, and make it easier for BCE’s buyers to secure the funds from lenders they need to complete the acquisition. The stock continues to trade about 9% below the offer price. That’s because the recent liquidity problems in the credit markets limit demand for new bonds, and could prompt the lenders to break...
SNC-LAVALIN GROUP INC. $54 (Toronto symbol SNC; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 151.0 million; Market cap: $8.2 billion; SI Rating: Average) continues to win new infrastructure contracts. It recently received a $300 million contract to build two natural gas compression plants in France. The company will also participate in the construction of a $200 million U.S. hydrogen plant at an oil refinery in California. These are small jobs next to SNC’s annual revenue of about $7 billion, but add to its current backlog of $10.0 billion. SNC now trades at 29.0 times its projected 2008 earnings of $1.86 a share. That’s expensive considering much of its income comes from engineering projects with uneven revenue streams. SNC-Lavalin is a hold....
THOMSON REUTERS CORP. $31 (Toronto symbol TRI; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 816.6 million;Market cap: $25.3 billion; SI Rating: Above average) provides information products to over 30 million professionals in five areas: Legal (45% of 2007 revenues), Financial (30%), Tax & Accounting (9%), Scientific (9%) and Healthcare (6%). The company took its present form on April 17, 2008. That’s when The Thomson Corp. (old symbol TOC) merged with UK-based information provider Reuters Group plc. Thomson shareholders received one share of Thomson Reuters for each Thomson Corp. share they held....
These three resource income trusts are more volatile than telecom stocks. But we feel their high yields and steady cash flows help offset their risk. As always, you should limit income trusts to no more than 15% of your total portfolio. PENGROWTH ENERGY TRUST $18 (Toronto symbol PGF.UN; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Units outstanding: 247.9 million;Market cap: $4.5 billion; SI Rating: Average) owns oil and natural gas properties in Alberta and B.C. Pengrowth prefers to focus on mature, proven properties that provide it with steady cash flows. At...
BCE Inc. recently won a legal ruling against a lawsuit launched by its bondholders to block its $42.75-a-share takeover by a consortium led by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. BCE has also agreed to alter some of the terms to help speed up the takeover. If the buyout goes through, many of BCE’s investors will want to re-invest their proceeds in other high-yielding telecom stocks. Here are three we see as buys. The influx of former BCE investors should also help push up their stock prices....
Every investor would like to find a fits-on-a-T shirt formula or stock philosophy for deciding when to buy or sell. It would make investing life so much simpler. In my experience, however, these formulas and the solutions they give you never provide dependable guidance. Sometimes a stock philosophy will work and other times it will not. The outcome of applying a stock philosophy or formula in any single instance is largely a matter of chance. The problem is that you are looking for a number that falls on a one-dimensional scale, with ‘buy’ at one end and ‘sell’ at the other. To make intelligent decisions, however, you have to look at a variety of factors that sit on a variety of scales....
Molson successfully merged with Coors in 2005. The merger let the company cut its costs and expand market share. It now aims to repeat this success with a new joint venture in the U.S. with SABMiller PLC, the parent of Miller Brewing. The additional cost savings will help Molson Coors offset rising prices for barley, hops, packaging and transportation. Lower costs will also help Molson Coors compete with larger brewers like Belgium’s InBev, which recently launched a hostile takeover offer for U.S. market leader Anheuser-Busch. MOLSON COORS CANADA INC. (Toronto symbols TPX.A $56 and TPX.B $54; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 181.5 million; Market cap: $10.0 billion; SI Rating: Average) is the world’s fifth-largest brewer by volume. It operates mainly in the United States (58% of 2007 sales volume), Canada (19%) and Europe (23%). Molson Coors also exports its products to Latin America and Asia. Leading brands include Coors Light, Molson Canadian and Carling....
TECK COMINCO LTD. $45.00, Toronto symbol TCK.B, has agreed to buy the 80.1% of FORDING CANADIAN COAL TRUST $89.90, Toronto symbol FDG.UN, that it does not already own. Fording unitholders will receive $82.00 U.S. in cash and 0.245 of a Teck class B subordinate voting share per unit. Fording’s units are trading about 5% below the implied value of the offer of $95.07, which indicates that a higher bid is unlikely. Teck’s offer is worth about $14.1 billion, including $1.5 billion in new shares. The purchase price is a high 67% of Teck’s market cap of $21 billion. However, Fording’s main asset is the Elk Valley coal project in British Columbia, which Teck currently manages. That eliminates the possibility of an unpleasant surprise. As well, full control of Fording will immediately add to both earnings and cash flow. Teck aims to complete the takeover by the end of October. Teck is a buy. Fording investors should hold, and tender their units to get the full amount without paying brokerage fees....
TRANSALTA CORP. $34.95, Toronto symbol TA, rose 15% this week after it received an informal takeover offer worth $39.00 a share from a private equity partnership that includes Luminus Management. Luminus currently owns about 9% of TransAlta’s stock, and has pressured the company to sell non-core assets, buy back shares and raise the dividend. The stock currently trades about 10% below the offer. That’s mainly due to concerns that problems in credit markets will make it difficult for the buyers to borrow the cash they need to complete the takeover. TransAlta is a major supplier of Alberta’s electricity. The buyers could have difficulty winning regulatory approval if the takeover significantly increases TransAlta’s debt, and limits its ability to invest in new power plants or environmental upgrades....