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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MANULIFE FINANCIAL CORP. $22 is a buy. The company (Toronto symbol MFC; Conservative-Growth Payer Portfolio; Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.9 billion; Market cap: $41.8 billion; Dividend yield: 6.0%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Above Average; www.manulife.ca) is Canada’s largest life insurer....
AT&T INC....
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP. $123 is a buy. The company (New York symbol IBM, Conservative-Growth Payer Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 896.3 million; Market cap: $110.2 billion; Dividend yield: 5.4%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Above Average; www.ibm.com) is one of the world’s largest computer companies, with operations in over 175 countries.
IBM has raised its dividend for 27 consecutive years and has paid quarterly dividends every year since 1916....
CHOICE PROPERTIES REIT $13 is a buy. Canada’s biggest REIT (Toronto symbol CHP.UN; Cyclical-Growth Payer Portfolio; Manufacturing & Industry sector; Units outstanding: 723.5 million; Market cap: $9.4 billion; Distribution yield: 5.7%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Above Average; www.choicereit.ca) owns 701 retail, industrial, office space and residential properties....
Preferred shares offer similar security to bonds, but can also provide investors a better after-tax yield. In addition, they rank ahead of common shares in the payment of dividends and in claims on the company’s assets.
Preferreds, however, are a fixed-return investment, so in general, they drop in value when interest rates go up (as they are likely to continue doing over the next year or so); they rise in value when interest rates go down.
As well, the underlying credit quality of the company issuing the preferred shares can be a negative factor; for example, when its share price falls, the value of its preferred shares typically fall, too.
However, if you want to own preferred shares as part of the fixed-income segment of your portfolio, and you can accept some risk, then preferreds are okay to hold.
That’s especially true of preferreds from high-quality issuers, including the Big Five banks, many Canadian utility companies and other major issuers....
Those exclusive names are licensed to Pizza Pizza for 99 years....
However, BCE is down just 8% this year. That’s because consumers and businesses increasingly rely on its services, no matter the direction of the overall economy....