Mid February 2026 and Dividend Increases

 

In between watching Men's hockey at the Olympics, several of my stocks reported earnings for the 4th quarter and 2025 wrap up plus plans for 2026 and beyond for the week starting February 9th, 2026.

Investors are geared toward wanting to see better numbers than the last quarter or previous year but depending on the sector there are issues like commodity prices, political interference and consumer sentiment among many that factor in the reports.

For example the Tech sector is seeing a lot of selling and investors moving cash for mainly a different reason than usual. Billions being spent on AI while the rewards remain questionable. The huge power consumption should be a worry for the areas where data centres are being built with possible power bills increasing for folks depending on the resources nearby.

The next possible trend for the Tech sector is the building of robots enhanced with AI. A never ending mission to put more people out of work in my mind.

Enbridge and Fortis I own both gained "year to date" after good reports and plans for the future while the TSX went through a roller coaster last week. Short term price fluctuations but gratifying while I collect the dividends from these companies.

"Canada’s two largest insurers beat analysts’ profit expectations for the last quarter of 2025 as the industry continues to show broad resilience to U.S trade wars and market volatility."

In the financial/Insurance sector, Manulife, MFC.TO, announced an increase of 10% for the next dividend payout with an ex-dividend date of February 25th. 

Sun Life also reported 4th quarter results and beat expectations. SLF.TO moved up in price recently after fluctuating between $80 to $85 CAD.

Great-West Life, GWO.TO, Canada's 3rd largest insurer increased the dividend by 9.8% and beat expectations in the company's 4th quarter report. GWO has an ex-dividend date of March 3rd, 2026.

Like most Canadian index funds/ETFs, my portfolio has a heavier weight towards financials, followed by pipelines, utilities and energy related stocks. ETFs I select diversify into other sectors such as railroads, industrial and recently miners due to the recent surge in gold and silver prices. RCDC for example, RBC Canadian Dividend Covered Call ETF with an average return of 12.6% since inception. 

March will be interesting, researching additional financial insurance companies, pipelines and commodity related. TC Energy, TRP.TO with a 3.34% dividend increase and Keyera, KEY.TO among others come to mind. As always, this post is based on my personal investing goals and opinions. Stocks and ETFs mentioned shouldn't be considered as investment advice. 

Reading several articles, the search is on for the undervalued stocks that have potential for gains and in my case ... dividend increases for the years to come. The majority of my holdings are reaching highs so I'm on the same page. That also gets into taking on more risk searching for the unknown potential although the data and write ups look good.

Meanwhile I look at the Graham Number for the stocks I hold and the PE Ratio in the range of 15 to 20 when further buying. Investors have many other indicators available when doing research and picks.

In the immortal words of Spock ...  live long and prosper.

February 2026 and Two Portfolio Additions

 

Bitter cold temperatures at times and consecutive weekend snow storms ending January have me looking forward to spring. February is usually the worst of the winters in these parts on the Atlantic coastline.

Meanwhile, I'm looking ahead to buying and adding another two stocks to my portfolio in February and looking ahead to March.

Looking at the Graham Numbers for Enbridge, ENB.TO and Fortis, FTS.TO with ex-dividend dates on February 17th, be aware both stocks are overvalued but producing capital gains and dividends. ENB.TO has a 3% increase for it's next dividend payout with a yield over 5% and FTS increased their dividend in November, 2024 by 4% with a yield of 3.5% and a 51 year streak.

I looked over last weeks earning reports for both Brookfield Infrastructure LP, BIP.UN and Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners LP, BEP.UN. Both had good reports with Brookfiled Renewable BEP.UN reporting record revenue. 

Both companies have their tentacles in new contracts, partnerships and buyouts with the more notable in the news wires these days ... the AI build outs, Nuclear Power and have assets internationally.

I currently own BIP.UN and will add BEP.UN before the 27th of February ex-dividend date. BEP.UN increased it's distribution paid in US dollars by 5% with a yield of 5.5%.

Brookfield Infrastructure, BIP.UN increased the distribution by 6% with a yield of 5%.

Brookfield looks complicated and confusing with all it's spin offs but keen managements know how to make money while I currently concentrate on their infrastructure and renewable branches. 

In the second half of February, my Financial Insurance companies have ex-dividend dates and they all performed well in 2025. I'm looking forward to the same in 2026 however no one knows with the Markets, just a lot of predictions by analysts and the growing reliance on AI researching past history. 

In March, I plan to add another Financial Insurance related company called Sagicor Financial Company, SFC.TO being undervalued and looking for gains with the current 3.9% yield, with a 12.5% increase to their dividend. SFC.TO will be research for the second half of March.

There's been a lot of stock market turmoil since the start of the year with daily US political news weighing and other factors. There will probably be another 3 years of this noise and depends who the next President of the US will be. I'm accustomed to the lows and highs that follow by now and continue with my long term investing plan.