September, 2024 with Telecoms, Energy and Pipelines

 

September 2024 has had a shaky start driving the indexes like the TSX and S&P 500 down and there were warning news about that in late August, with the traditional September Market occurrence when there's a lot of selling and adjusting portfolios for some investors while indexes fall on both side of the border. Something like the "Sell in May and go away" cliche. 

With younger generations entering the Markets everyday while some are also into the Crypto scene, I was thinking those Market quirks would eventually fade away into history ... but not yet. I'm a long term holder investor so don't follow those times of the year when there's more selling than buying. 

With me, it's a good time to go shopping for stock deals but with interest rates falling as well, there's not a lot of movement with the stocks I watch compared to the short term market crashes we've been having lately. Many are low volatility I own

September is also my usual Telecom "buy" month with BCE and Telus,T having quarterly ex-dividend dates. After doing a lot of reading from different sources, I decided to skip this month and just hold the shares I have until I see better news. 

I see the telecom sector with a negative tint these past weeks due to various factors involved although the telecom sector was down around 20% earlier in the year and now a little over 3% down currently. Improvement but I would like to see more "overall green' there and with the Bank of Canada lowering interest rates, that could be a plus over time.

Quebecor with it's expansion out of Quebec however is of further interest to me and I own the stock.

Moving on to the energy and pipeline sectors, Canadian Natural Resources, CNQ and Pembina Pipeline, PPL with a 5% yield is on my list to further buy with ex-dividend dates falling on September 12th and 16th respectively. Pembina Pipeline seems to be the favourite to buy into the Trans Mountain Pipeline in BC when it comes up for sale from the Feds and is currently in high production and shipping to various ports internationally.

The 5 top banks in Canada come into focus towards the end of September plus other stocks such as TC Energy, TRP and I will post about that while CIBC, CM and the Bank of Nova Scotia, BNS will be further buys scheduled.

National Bank, NA in the news a lot lately with Canadian Western Bank's (CWB) board approval for the pending takeover by National Bank. I don't hold the stock currently, only in ETFs. National Bank has a yield of 3.55% currently with the last dividend increase being 3.77% for June, 2024. It would make for a good addition to the portfolio and I'll decide on that in the next couple of weeks.

I add the month and year dates here and in titles for my posts where I like to go back to my previous articles to see what has changed from then to current day with the stocks while companies continue to grow, develop assets and expand to hopefully make more money in the future and pay down debt along the way.

I read about stocks and ETFs from various sources and blogs, making note of those that interest me and do the research while thinking about holding 5 years, 10 years ahead or longer with an addition. There are those that will disappoint and to be expected while even the masters like Warren Buffet will sell at a loss from time to time.

Back to School with the Markets in September 2024

 

In the US, Mr. Powell, head of the Federal Reserve is making his first cutting of interest rates which could happen in September as Canada heads into their 3rd lowering of interest rates from a high of 5% coming into 2024.

That puts more of a positive investor sentiment towards the markets depending on sectors. Utilities and pipelines for example will like the lowering of interest payments on their debts. 

I'm a monthly "dollar cost averaging" buyer so I'll probably be paying more for my stock buys for now but there's always a lot of factors moving prices daily ... up and down and my buys "average" out through the months and years ahead while the compounding factor kicks in.

It's back to school and studies here in September. It seems with the stock market, I'm always in school, learning and working the plan. Not always easy to do as a portfolio and dividend growth accumulates. The mind wants to see it grow faster like an addiction but just chasing mid to high yield with no research is not the answer. That's when a break from the markets is needed to sort of reboot.

With 20 individual stocks, I have a Watchlist of some decent stocks. One I'll add for certain in September is Capital Power Corporation (CPX) I've been keeping tabs on for awhile, which operates in Central & Western Canada and in the US.

The utility has a dividend increase of 6% added with a current yield of 5.52% with an ex-dividend date falling on the 27th of September, 2024. CPX has a 5 year dividend growth of 6.57%. What I like to see but as always, past performance doesn't mean it will repeat or even grow that dividend rate.

Why add more stocks? Various company board decisions about dividends with plans for more capital going towards expansion for a set term can sometimes affect dividend growth such as Emera (EMA) for example, with their expansion plans in the US lowering dividend growth to 1 to 2% going forward for awhile. 

So, it's about keeping an average dividend rate and growth over the portfolio going forward with me and won't alter my future plan to add more money to Emera with their current yield of 5.70%. 

Meanwhile, September is about more pipeline and energy stocks in my next post that rank up there in the highest yielding stocks in the TSX with "risk" data updated regularly by the Globe and Mail.