The Monthly Bill

 

It's the last day of February and heading into March with Daylight Savings Time and the much welcome, first fay of Spring.

March is also another what I call, a "Telecom" month with two heavyweights in that sector having ex-dividend days where initial or additional Buys need to be in to receive the quarterly cash distributions these companies payout to shareholders.

Bell Canada (BCE) and Telus (T) with current yields of 6.09% and 5.15% respectively, are monthly bill outfits for their paying customers and of course cell phone users, internet and TV subscribers see increases in rates over time.

BCE increased their dividend by 5.16%. T or Telus increased their dividend by 3.69% in December of last year and I expect to see more increases this year.

I'm more comfortable with large market cap companies like these that have a steady cashflow coming in from customers compared to ... let's say the mining industry which is very heavy on expense refining raw ore to iron or iron pellets for example. They depend on the day to day Market price commodity conditions with one of the largest importers in the world being China and their want for more or less during a given year for their steel mills.

That can either boost a Miners gains or go "under" and close a mine site permanently or temporary with China controlling that monopoly.

A different world compared to the Utility sector with mega companies in Canada like Fortis (FTS) and Emera (EMA) with customer bills generating cash for them every month that never go down even with inflation coming back to a 2% range some day or year. Only increases.

Mid March will bring on a look at more stocks with companies like TC Energy Corp (TRP) spending big bucks to get BC's natural gas pipeline and plant operational to supply customers in Asia and countries across the Pacific ocean. A top 5 Bank like CIBC.

There are also a lot of what they call "Passive Investing" opportunities becoming more popular with ETF's and Funds out there. Split Shares and Covered Calls that pay higher dividends causing the building attraction for some investors. More on them and how their cash generation helps with the accumulation of individual stocks I buy.

 

Can't have enough Insurance they Say

 

As a long term investor with many of the top stocks in the TSX 60, with the top 10 highest yielding being in the BTSX, I read several Blogs, Newsletters and Financial articles when these stocks come up that I currently hold and others that I will add from a building Watchlist that are not all in the TSX 60.

The top ten in the BTSX, or Beat the TSX ... change up with price changes and their corresponding yield percentages.

On The Connolly Report since 1981 (dividendgrowth.ca), I check Tom Connolly's list from the past 10 years and see how a stock has performed with price and dividend yield increase over that time. 

Spanning from 2012 to end of year 2022, two stocks that are next on my hit list that I own and will add to are Sunlife, SLF and Great-West Life, GWO. Both are large insurance companies along with Manulife Financial, MFC (11% dividend increase; Feb 15th announcement) which I mentioned in my last post.

Except for 2013 and 2014 both SLF and GWO have increased their dividends every year and gone up in stock price. Both have ex-dividend dates for the end of February and early March when the biggest Telecoms in Canada are next to post about here, BCE and T, Telus.

All the charts, stats and financials on these companies are online and can easily be found by Googling them or on Yahoo Finance to browse over and study for those interested plus feedback from various sources.

Switching to the crypto market, the SEC in the US is making the biggest Exchangers nervous and upsetting a lot of investors that like "Staking". One of the biggest being Kraken, which has offered this product for years. Out of the blue last week, the SEC decided to sink it's talons into Kraken first. After paying a hefty fine in the millions, Kraken has stopped Staking options in the US. I suspect Coinbase will be next on the SEC's list to be notified about their "Earn" options. 

All this fuss stopped the upward price movement of Bitcoin and Ether that I watch for now. The US SEC department wants Exchangers to register their products and a decision will be made if it's allowed to be offered. Meanwhile, foreign and offshore outfits that have these 'interest earning' options will probably gain more funds from US investors that prefer Staking. 

Concerning The Connolly Report, it's now a one-time subscription based site to read Tom's latest summaries and overview in a monthly Blog format as long as he continues to write it, being in his 80's.

Dividend Increases and Tips

 

I always think of February as the worst of the winter here on the East Coast of Canada with March getting better. Although St. Patrick's Day can bring on a decent snow storm some years. Like a tradition.

February didn't disappoint being all over the news with an Arctic air blast sending temps down to -40 C with the windchill factor and there was plenty of northerly wind on Saturday, the 4th of Feb. Like the flip of a switch, milder weather today. System shocker for yours truly ... always was with drastic swings in temperature.

In my last post I mentioned Enbridge (ENB) will have an ex-dividend date of Feb 14. Chocolates and/or roses for your sweetie on that day. Top it off with dinner out and that could be a $100+ day with today's inflated prices but we only live once I say.

Enbridge announced it will raise it's quarterly dividend to 0.88750 from 0.8600, a 3.2% increase for the year. Those increases add up when holding a building number of ENB shares.

BCE; Bell Canada, another top stock in Canada in the telecom sector, which goes ex-dividend in March also raised it's quarterly dividend to 0.9675, a 5.2% increase.

Another alternative to invest in Enbridge is via Middlefield's ENS (Class A) split share fund (E Split Corp.)with a current 0.13 monthly dividend per share. ENS started in June of 2018

As always, I just write about my Picks and decent possibilities as add-ons and there are a lot out there to consider, adding some to my Watchlist as I go and scrapping others where not funded yet. Not recommendations, just what works for me

In closing for today while Bitcoin and Ether have been kind of flat the last few days, an article about tips, timing purchases/trades and more with stocks from Matt. Good advise.

10 Tips for your BTSX Portfolio

Courtesy of enbridge.com (click to enlarge)