MICROSOFT CORP. $401 is a buy for aggressive investors. The software giant (Nasdaq symbol MSFT; High-Growth Dividend Payer Portfolio; Manufacturing sector; Shares outstanding: 7.4 billion; Market cap: $3.0 trillion; Dividend yield: 0.9%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Highest; www.microsoft.com) last increased your quarterly dividend by 9.6% with the December 2025 payment, to $0.91 a share from $0.83. The new annual rate of $3.64 yields 0.9%.

The company continues to spend heavily on new datacentres and related infrastructure to run artificial intelligence (AI) programs. In the current fiscal year ending June 30, 2026, capital spending could more than double to $145 billion. Concerns over those costs are partly why the stock is down 17% since the start of 2026. However, these new facilities should spur demand for its cloud computing and other services.

AT&T and Verizon continue to upgrade their wireless and Internet networks. Those outlays should keep new customers coming in and support their high dividend yields.

AT&T INC. $28 is a buy. The company (New York symbol T; Income-Growth Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 7.0 billion; Market cap: $196.0 billion; Dividend yield: 4.0%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Above Average; www.att.com) is the largest wireless (cellphone) carrier in the U.S., with 120.11 million subscribers (excluding mobile devices such as tablets) and 24.68 million wireless subscribers in Mexico. It also has 14.70 million high-speed Internet users and provides traditional telephone services to consumers and businesses.

In April 2022, AT&T merged its WarnerMedia entertainment business with Discovery Inc. to form Warner Bros. Discovery (Nasdaq symbol WBD). At that time, AT&T shareholders owned 71% of the new firm. The company also received $40.4 billion in cash as part of the deal. As a result of the spinoff, AT&T cut its annual dividend rate from $2.08 a share to $1.11. That rate gives you a 4.0% yield.

RIOCAN REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST $20 is a buy. The REIT (Toronto symbol REI.UN; Cyclical-Growth Dividend Payer Portfolio, Manufacturing sector; Units outstanding: 293.7 million; Market cap: $5.9 billion; Dist. yield: 5.8%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Average; www.riocan.com) last raised your monthly distribution by 4.3% with the March 2025 payment. The new annual rate of $1.158 a unit yields 5.8%.

The shopping mall owner continues to do a good job of getting its existing tenants to renew their leases. In the fourth quarter of 2025, the retention rate was 94.5%, up from 78.8% a year earlier. That helped lift revenue in the quarter by 0.6%, to $295.1 million from $293.3 million a year earlier. Due to higher interest costs, cash flow declined 6.8%, to $115.7 million from $124.2 million. On a per-unit basis, cash flow declined at a slower rate of 4.9%, to $0.39 from $0.41, due to fewer units outstanding.

We can be wrong on any of our stock or REIT recommendations, of course. That’s why we feel that investors should build a portfolio of 10 to 20 mainly well established, dividend-paying stocks, including REITs, chosen mainly from our Average or higher ratings; you must also spread your holdings across most if not all of the five main economic sectors. That way the overall gains in the portfolio will offset declines in one or two holdings.

The unit price for Allied Properties has dropped over 25% given the REIT’s plans to sell additional units to pay down its high debt. That’s likely to dilute value for existing investors. In terms of these two REITs, we prefer Dream Office—enjoying rising demand. We now see Allied as a hold.

FINANCIAL 15 SPLIT CORP. $10.78 (Toronto symbol FTN; Shares o/s: 68.7 million; Market cap: $740.6 million; Dividend yield: 14.1%; www.quadravest.com) holds shares of 15 big Canadian and U.S. financial companies.

These include Bank of Nova Scotia, TD Bank, Manulife, Sun Life, National Bank, Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Wells Fargo.

Financial 15 yields a very high 14.1%. However, its income does not cover those high distributions to its shareholders. To make up the difference, it must realize capital gains on its securities. But those gains are far from guaranteed, so it supports its distributions by selling call options on the stocks it holds.

IBM’s shares have fallen 27% from their November 2025 peak of $325. The drop reflects investor concerns that new artificial intelligence (AI) tools to streamline legacy computer code could hurt IBM’s mainframe and consulting businesses. However, the company is already employing AI and other value-added services that will help it hang onto clients focused on cutting costs and boosting efficiency. In fact, its AI-related backlog more than doubled from $6 billion in March 2025 to $12.5 billion by the end of the year.

That impressive order book bodes well for investors, as it lets IBM keep raising your dividend. The company has, in fact, increased the annual dividend rate each of the past 30 years.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP. $238 is a buy. The company (New York symbol IBM, Conservative-Growth Payer Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 938.0 million; Market cap: $223.2 billion; Dividend yield: 2.8%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Above Average; www.ibm.com) is one of the world’s largest computer firms, with operations in over 175 countries.

A: Axon Enterprises Inc., $440.42, symbol AXON on Nasdaq, (Shares outstanding: 79.4 million; Market cap: $35.0 billion; www.axon.com) is best known for its Taser line of non-lethal weapons for law enforcement and consumers. The law enforcement technology company also sells body cameras, in-car cameras, software and drones.

Axon’s customers include first responders at the international, federal, state, and local law enforcement levels, as well as fire departments, prisons, and the justice sector. It also has commercial clients.

Axon has two operating segments:

Software and Services (44% of revenue): The segment is growing rapidly and integrates Axon’s hardware devices with cloud-based digital evidence management and analytics tools.

A: Fidelity Global Value Long/Short ETF, $9.49, symbol FGLS on the CBOE Canada Exchange (Units outstanding: 5.0 million; Market cap: $47.5 million; www.fidelity.ca) invests globally by taking long positions in companies that the manager believes are undervalued; at the same time, it takes short positions in what it sees as overvalued companies.

(Unlike a long position in investing, under a short-position strategy, an investor sells a stock they do not own but have borrowed. The investor sells the stock at the current price with the expectation of buying it back later at a lower price and so realizing a profit because of the decline.)

This ETF launched on February 1, 2024, with a very high MER of 1.51%. Previously, it operated as a mutual fund, starting in October 2020.

A: Caterpillar Inc., $768.52, symbol CAT on New York (Shares outstanding: 468.0 million; Market cap: $359.7 billion; www.caterpillar.com), is leading maker of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines, and diesel-electric locomotives.

The company distributes its products in 197 countries through a network of 157 independent dealers. Caterpillar receives a little over half of its sales from North America, followed by EMEA (19%), Asia Pacific (18%), and Latin America (10%). Its clients are mainly in the mining, logging, farming, construction, power and energy industries. The company also provides dealers and customers with equipment financing and insurance.

Here are the company’s key segments:

Power and Energy: This is the largest segment, accounting for around 40% of annual sales. Products and services include engines, generator sets, integrated systems and solutions, turbines and turbine-related services.

Many households and even some individuals have five or 10 separate investment accounts. It’s something we see with many of our new portfolio management clients when they first come to us. We also see evidence of it in emails we receive from some of our IC members.

Those investment accounts run the gamut from RRSPs (regular and spousal), TFSAs and other registered accounts to personal and joint accounts, corporate accounts, LIRAs from past employment, children’s and trust accounts, and so on.

In addition, some investors have one or more of what you might call “legacy” accounts. These are accounts with brokers you no longer do business with, but you never quite get around to transferring.

This fragmented-portfolio situation is more common than you’d guess. In fact, it’s a phenomenon frequently associated with decades of self-directed investing.