CANADIAN UTILITIES LTD. $39 is a buy. The company (Toronto symbol CU; Income-Growth Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 271.8 million; Market cap: $10.6 billion; Dividend yield: 4.7%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Above Average; www.canadianutilities.com) distributes electricity and natural gas in Alberta and Australia. It also owns or invests in 7 non-regulated power plants— 3 in Australia, 2 in Mexico, 1 in Canada and 1 in Chile. Parent company ATCO owns 52.5% of Canadian Utilities.

With the March 2025 payment, the company raised your quarterly dividend by 1.0%. Investors now receive $0.4577 a share instead of $0.4531. The annual rate of $1.831 yields a high 4.7%. Canadian Utilities has increased its dividend rate for 53 consecutive years.

Many green energy producers rely heavily on government subsidies, which increases their risk. However, these two firms get most of their revenue from rate-regulated plants or long-term supply contracts. That bodes well for investors looking for dependable high yields.

We’ve long advised holding 20% to 30% of your portfolio in U.S. stocks. We see exposure to U.S. stocks, and the U.S. dollar, as a valuable form of diversification. It also gives you a hedge against a drop in the Canadian dollar, especially if you hold your stocks in a U.S.-dollar brokerage account.


Despite a recent scare, Canadian shareholders still pay just a 15% withholding tax on dividends from U.S. stocks they own. In most cases, however, if you hold the stocks in non-registered cash accounts, you can get a Canadian income-tax credit to offset that tax.

REALTYMOGUL APARTMENT GROWTH REIT is a private REIT (more on those below) with around $230 million in assets. The company pays quarterly distributions that yield a high 4.5%. The REIT has a 1.25% management fee.


RealtyMogul invests in apartment buildings; it currently owns nine properties in seven U.S. states.



To boost investor returns, the REIT aims to add value to its properties through property exterior and unit improvements.

Cisco Systems is in a strong position to profit from the growth in artificial intelligence (AI), as its networking products are critical to the transfer of data within complex datacentres. The company also continues to expand its software business, which cuts its reliance on hardware sales.


These trends should drive Cisco’s earnings higher in the next few years. Those rising earnings will let it keep raising your dividend, as it has each year since 2011.

We designed our TSINetwork Ratings to give you an idea of the investment quality and risk in stocks we recommend, so you can build a portfolio that suits your needs and objectives.

Other rating systems use a mechanical process to make investment decisions.

Ours relies on our analysts’ judgments and is based on their knowledge of each company and its place in the economy.

RESTAURANT BRANDS INTERNATIONAL $71 (www.rbi.com) is a buy. The fast-food giant recently entered into an agreement to develop Firehouse Subs in Mexico. It plans to open 100 restaurants in Monterrey and other major cities in the next five years. Meantime, the company’s earnings will probably rise 11% in 2025 to $3.71 a share; the stock trades at a reasonable 19.1 times that forecast. The $2.48 annual dividend payment yields 3.5%. Restaurant Brands is a buy.

After Pfizer launched its COVID-19 vaccine and treatments, the stock’s shares shot up to $62 in 2021, but they have moved down as the pandemic eased. However, the company used the cash from its COVID products to buy smaller drugmakers, which should spur its long-term growth. It’s also aggressively cutting its costs, which will let it keep raising your dividend.

WALMART INC. $96 is a buy. The company (New York symbol WMT; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 8.0 billion; Market cap: $768.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.1; Dividend yield: 1.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.walmart.com) is the world’s largest retailer, with 10,771 outlets in 19 countries.


The company is testing several ways to speed up its home delivery service. Those include using drones to deliver packages, and new technologies that let it better track goods in its warehouses. Walmart also plans to open smaller distributions centres that are about the same size as its regular outlets.

TENNANT CO. $82 is a hold. The company (New York symbol TNC; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing sector; Shares outstanding: 18.7 million; Market cap: $1.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.2; Dividend yield: 1.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.tennantco.com) makes industrial floor and street-cleaning equipment, including scrubbers, sweepers and polishers.


In 2024, Tennant invested $32.1 million in Brain Corp., a California-based developer of autonomous and robotic technology. That has helped the company launch its own line of autonomous cleaning equipment. So far, it has delivered 9,800 units to over 950 customers.