Telephone in Focus

 

The Canadian Big Banks have been posting their quarterly earnings over the last several days. It's not surprising that they have and continue to shift more funds to cover possible default loans, etc. with inflation and Bank of Canada's past hike of interest rates to bring it down, creating a financial headache for many plus businesses.

With the yield stocks, September is next and I'll call it my quarterly Telecom month where ex-dividend dates for T-T (Telus) and BCE-T (Bell Canada) fall in the first half of September. I'll keep adding to these two stocks and they are both high yield stocks featured in the current BTSX portfolio.

Both have increased their dividends each year for the last 10 years and while company dividend payments are not guaranteed, I'm investing for future increases.

When I look at some of the popular ETFs and Funds holding these two telecom stocks such as VDY and XEI, which offer high yield and growth, it's more advantageous for me to hold T-T and BCE-T individually because of the their yield history and no management fees. 

Also, next month there are some popular Pipelines and Banks with ex-dividend dates to write about in my next post early in September.

The TSX 60 Picks

 

In the first half of this year 2023, the Big Banks in Canada with their billions in quarterly earning reports fell out of favour by some investors due to bank trouble in the US. That's slowly fading but still lingering. Recently, it's about Pipelines where some major companies come to mind such as Enbridge, Pembina Pipeline Corp, TC Energy and Keyera Corp. 

There will always be issues with the Pipelines making headlines in the financial world. Environmental concerns with local and federal governments involved. Breaks, leaks and construction cost over-runs are just a few. Higher interest credit and loans taking more of a bite out of their profits these days.

Being a long term investor, the experienced say ignore these short term fluctuations and some have been proven to be right with their picks looking at 10 year performance posted that I read. Gains in both capital and yield with patience. 

There are so many opportunities in the market place with stocks and the steady number of ETF start ups that it can become confusing and make your head spin but it usually comes down to picks from the top 60 stocks by yield in the TSX and popular ETFs that hold them.

Personally, I'm a fan of the top ten by highest yield and descending plus hold and continue to buy banks and companies lower in the list where either their price went up or down which moves their yield percentage ... TSX 60 by Dividend Yield

Always an interesting read, one can see how the Insurance companies I own have beat analyst predictions in their recent quarterly earnings reports plus other investing ideas on Dale Roberts; Cut the Crap Investing ... Sunday Reads. 

On the earnings front Kyle shows how the Canadian insurers beat expectations.

Insurance earnings highlights

• Manulife Financial (MFC/TSX): Earnings per share of $0.83 (versus $0.77 predicted).
• Sun Life Financial (SLF/TSX): Earnings per share of $1.57 (versus $1.52 predicted).
• Great West Life (GWO/TSX): Earnings per share of $0.99 (versus $0.91 predicted).
• Power Corporation (POW/TSX): Earnings per share of $1.27 (versus $0.97 predicted)

You’ll find Power Corp and Manulife in the Beat The TSX Portfolio for 2023.

The Watchlist

 

What's in your Watchlist?

I hold several of the top yielding stocks in the TSX 60 and building on all in the current 'Beat the TSX" or BTSX Strategy highlighted on Matt's site at dividendstrategy.ca except AQN: Algonquin Power.

Meanwhile, I keep a Watchlist and add/delete stocks/ETFs that I'm pondering on buying. For example, RNW-T: Transalta Renewables Inc, a company into "Green" power I call it. Wind Farms comes to mind.

The company pays a monthly dividend and if you like a consistent payout, it's been the same amount since mid 2017. The drawback is ... growth investors like steady increases in the dividend. However, boosting the dividend too much and the company suffers a down year or two, a cut and a lower dividend could result if things don't improve as in AQN's recent history.

05 Aug 2023 update: September's declared dividends will probably be the last one for RNW-T as they have been absorbed by TransAlta ( TA-T), which pays quarterly dividends. An example of how things can change and to keep informed on holdings with what news is available.

ALC-T: Algoma Central Corporation is a Great Lakes shipping company and pays out a quarterly dividend and unlike RNW-T has been increasing it's cash dividends for it's stock holders. The company is also into international shipping as well.

I look over the charts, the numbers and divided history and check out the latest news articles about companies that make my Watchlist.

A Watchlist can be comprised of stocks I currently own to monitor how they are performing and I can build it on stock related sites such as TMX for example with options to set up my email alerts with the latest news, declared dividends by a company, etc. at no cost. I find these handy instead of searching for the information.

BTSX type stocks are my priority in buying and like many investors, there's only so much cash to go around for investing so the Watchlist of stocks I don't own is secondary buying. More power to the people I read about that can invest 50 to 75% of their pay cheque every payday. You only live once so I'm not going to do without those extras that are enjoyable today for an unknown but planned future. Who knows what curve balls life will throw at you in the meantime. Hopefully ... none.