Spring and Growing Dividends

 

It's spring with the long Easter weekend coming up and I see the outside garden centres being stocked already for another busy planting season. 

Inland from the coast here, there are many dairy farms that use a natural fertiliser for their fields in the form of liquid manure and pump sprayed this time of year. With the wind in the right direction and wanting the windows open for that spring fresh air and putting clothes out on the line ... the smell can get pretty ripe with a hurried change of plans. Frebreze doesn't stand a chance in smothering it.  

Next week, a top bank in Canada, CIBC (CM-T) is on my calendar to buy more shares. With an ex-dividend date of March 27th, CIBC has a current yield of 5.63%.

There are a lot of decent stocks to consider buying before that day, such as TC Energy, (TRP-T). This pipeline and natural gas distributor increased it's dividend by 3.23%

People love their sugar and we tend to consume too much sometimes. Boston Cream donuts are an addiction of mine along with a Tim Horton's coffee in the mornings

With that in mind, a Canadian company called Rogers Sugar or RSI-T is a popular "cheap to buy" stock on my Watchlist and has a current 6.78% yield, paying dividends quarterly.

In a recent update, buys and sells now have a shorter waiting period in Canada stating on May 27th when it will only take 1 business day for a Trade to settle instead of the current 2 business days to settle.

I have quite a few stocks on my Watchlist that I feel are "worthy" with the yield range I'm looking for but tend to put cash/dividends back into my holdings that are in the top twenty yielding stocks in the TSX like Power Corporation of Canada (POW-T) with companies like Great-West Life and Wealthsimple under it's umbrella and a current yield of 5.36%.

Although I mention yields and dividends/distributions, it's wise to look and study the stock's stats like P/E, earnings per share, cashflow and payout ratio, etc. One of my favourites is the 5 year dividend growth and I've read 5% and above is another metric to go by when deciding on a stock. For example, CIBC (CM-T) has a 5 year dividend growth of 10.3%.

 

  

Since it was International Women's Day back on the 8th of March, I'll add a quote from Geraldine Weiss, a lady who followed her investing rules and was successful.

We all hope for capital gains, but the only thing we can really count on is the dividends.

Mid March 2024 and Pipelines

It's time to get my system clock accustomed to the daylight savings change although I like this time change for a longer daylight in the evenings compared to adjusting the clocks for the winter.

Mid March has several interesting stocks in Canada that have declared their dividends and ex-dividend dates. For a quick snapshot of the dividend calendar I usually bring up the free to use Dividend History site for the bare essentials of the stocks I'm watching and hold. There is also a more detailed list on site, clicking on the Dividend Reports tab but I go to a company's website for the stock reports/news and dividend information I'm looking for to double check on dates and financials.

Looking at dividendhistory.org , I can search individual stocks quickly and I'm mainly looking for the dividend increase percentages and history. For the 14th of March, Pembina Pipeline, PPL (TSX) is listed among other stocks for ex-dividends for that day 

PPL, was a monthly payer but now gone to quarterly payments. They are a mid-stream energy company into a pipeline network, natural gas and propane among other assets in Canada and the US. 

Although Pipelines are like "Middle People" between production and customer they are affected by the commodity price fluctuations and limited to how much they can charge to transport through their pipelines. PPL has a current yield of about 5.5%, currently undervalued and remains on the BTSX's 10 high yield stock list for 2024.

PPL is among my Pipeline sector stocks along with Enbridge, ENB (TSX) being top ranked. Although Enbridge is now getting big into it's Natural Gas asset plans for the US as well as here at home in Canada. Getting more like a 50/50 business between natural gas/oil and pipeline. TC Energy Corp, TRP is a similar business completing it's BC natural gas pipeline to a distribution plant in that province.

As I mentioned in my last post, I tested and later went with a low cost subscription for Dividend.Watch. They continue to add features and where I'm into multiple brokers with TD and Wealthsimple, I can add my transactions and get an overview of my portfolio(s) with a Watchlist feature. They have added an App for the cell as well. 

Their dividend calendar shows ex-dividend dates, earning dates and payment amounts due me after being confirmed by the companies and banks. The free version allows only the current month but paid subscription provides the future months and more than 10 stocks.

I find it a reasonable priced alternative and has more features than a spread sheet. I add transactions manually which is quick and easy compared to allowing broker portfolio access. 

Data hounds and hackers are rampant as we know although comparable sites say they are safe to use when an investor allows access to brokers. Be safe and change up passwords from time to time plus use 2 factor authentication is recommended. Finger print authentication is relatively new I haven't tested yet. 

A Quebec Telecom for March, 2024

 

I'm glad to see Spring marked in the calendar for March. Along with Fall, it's my favourite time of the year where temperatures are where I like them. Sort of a refresh for the rest of the year for me and thoughts of grilling on the BBQ.

In the Markets, the big banks of Canada reported earnings and all were decent considering what's going on with the current interest rates except BMO but the Bank of Montreal expects a better 2024. Reminds me of all the negative news about BNS, Bank of Nova Scotia last year and now more positive after their quarterly report.

Telecoms are on my mind starting March, 2024 with ex-dividend dates in the first half of the month. 

I own BCE and T, Telus but there's a lot of negative noise about BCE lately and see what the financial impact has on their layoffs, cuts and slashes moving forward. Scaling back their dividend "increase" from 5% to 3.1% starting this year didn't go over well with some investors. Hopefully when the smoke clears from that fallout, more positive results in 2024.

Along with buying more T, Telus this month, I'll add QBR-B, Quebecor headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. I've had Quebecor on my watchlist for awhile and they gained customers after taking over Freedom Mobile out west.

Quebecor primarily provides telecom services in Quebec, where it has roughly 1.7 million internet subscribers—equating to a penetration rate of about 50% in its footprint—and over 3 million mobile subscribers, including more than 20% wireless market share in Quebec. With the acquisition of Freedom Mobile in April 2023, Quebecor also has more than 1.5 million mobile subscribers in Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta.

QBR-B is undervalued and increased their dividend with their latest positive earnings report with an ex-dividend of March 07, 2024 and pay date of April 02, 2024.

Pipelines are another sector interest of mine and for March; PPL, Pembina Pipeline is coming across with encouraging financial stats. I'll get into that in my next article where PPL's ex-dividend date is coming up in mid March and about keeping track of a growing portfolio with dividend.watch I tested and could stay "free" but decided to go premium.

Biggest movers

Symbol Name Last Price 7D 1Y

PPL Pembina Pipeline 47.49 1.4% 8.7% No recent events  38.0% UNDERVALUED

What I write about with the stocks are my personal picks with my long term goal of accumulating dividends and growth, along with capital appreciation over the years. As always, not recommendations but do recommend investors do their own research with the stocks, ETFs (distributions) or a mix of both.