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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Algonquin also sold its non-regulated renewable energybusiness to LS Power in January 2025 for up to $2.5 billion.
MANULIFE FINANCIAL, $43.85, is a buy. This safety-conscious stock (Toronto symbol MFC; Shares outstanding: 1.7 billion; Market cap: $74.5 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.0%; 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 June 30, 2025, the insurer had $1.6 trillion in assets under administration.
The company’s revenue in the quarter ended June 30, 2025, increased 21.4%, to $15.64 billion from $12.88 billion, on significantly higher investment income. Earnings decreased by 0.6%, to $1.726 billion from $1.737 billion a year earlier. However, per-share earnings gained 4.4%, to $0.95 from $0.91, on fewer shares outstanding. Excluding currency rates, earnings rose 2%.
The company last raised your quarterly dividend by 66.7% in December 2019. The annual rate of $0.50 a share yields 1.7%.
Our exclusive TSI Dividend Sustainability Rating System uses eight factors to determine a company’s ability to maintain its current dividend, and increase the payment over time.
These factors are:
With the June 2025 payment, Finning raised your quarterly dividend by 10.0%. Investors now receive $0.3025 a share instead of $0.275. The new annual rate of $1.21 yields 1.9%.
Nutrien also sells seeds, fertilizers and agricultural products to farmers through some 1,900 stores spread across the Western Hemisphere and Australia. That business accounts for about 75% of the company’s revenue, which helps offset its exposure to volatile bulk fertilizer prices.
The company last raised its quarterly dividend by 5.9% with the March 2025 payment, to $0.315 a share from $0.2975. The annual rate of $1.26 yields a solid 2.9%. AltaGas also plans to increase its annual dividend rate by between 5% and 7% annually through 2028.
With the March 2025 payment, Travel + Leisure increased your quarterly dividend by 12.0%, to $0.56 a share from $0.50. The annual rate of $2.24 yields 3.7%.