Utilities and Energy in February 2025

 

I get inspiration from Blogs and newsletters from those who achieved their investing goals and/or just keep building their portfolios through their lifetime eventually letting it run on autopilot providing gains and income.

Enbridge, ENB is the recent subject of an article written by Mark Seed;   Then and Now - Enbridge

Mark bought ENB in 2005 and it has increased it's dividend ever since. Currently, ENB has a 6% yield and in the top 5 of he highest yielding stocks in the TSX 60 having a dividend growth of 10% spanning over 29 years. 

ENB gained 30% in it's stock price over the last year and owns pipelines, storage and natural gas plants in the US and in Canada with headquarters in Calgary, Alberta.

Tariffs on oil and gas imposed by the US at some point this month will probably shift stock prices for awhile until the industry knows what the actually percentage is. Currently, a 10% import tariff by the US is being thrown around keeping Trump happy at the centre of attention as usual while customers will mostly likely pay for the increases when it comes to pass.

I'll keep accumulating ENB.TO stock going forward and like every stock I own, keep aware of the news on the company as it develops.

                                                                  Enbridge Pipelines

Fortis, FTS with 50 years of dividend increases is spread out throughout North America and beyond. What I call a foundation stock in my portfolio with an ex-dividend date of February 18, 2025 and a current yield of 3.97% with a current past year stock price growth of 14.6%. Fortis increased it's dividend by 4.24% last November 2024 with dividend payments made on December 1st, 2024.

Some investors are focused on the AI sector and the build out of AI Data Centres and that involves huge amounts of power from different sources like renewable, natural gas and nuclear for example so as the news brings out more information on all this ... some buy and sell utility and energy stocks with the companies they think will benefit or not with what's going on daily.

I tend to ignore that noise as these companies have their core customers and if involved in Data Centres, that will bring in additional revenue after expenses. 

Towards the end of February, the financial/insurance companies I like will have ex-dividend dates such as Manulife - MFC, Sunlife - SLF and Great-West Life - GWO. With regards to Total Return, I have gained more with MFC and GWO to date. I'll check in on these companies before buying at the end of the month.

In the first two weeks of February and I'm sure those involved in the Telecom sector in Canada will be reading up on the latest from BCE and Telus, T. I'm more interested in their guidance for 2025 and perhaps beyond. Personally, I'm not expecting exciting news but see what the latest is with those companies. 

I noticed Telus, T has rebounded in price so far this year. That could change after their reports come out. Hopefully a tad more positive than last year.

To end January I added to what I call more fluid ETFs to boost monthly income with distributions and for cash to buy more long term stock units. 

Royal Bank's RCDC ETF, RBC Canadian Dividend Covered Call with around a 6.5% yield and increased it's distribution starting 2025 by 8.7%, subject to future change.

BMO's ZWB ... BMO Covered Call Canadian Banks also with a 6.50% yield at this time, where I was looking for more Canada top bank distributions on a monthly basis.

I go through all the information, data and history with the ETFs I research to see if an ETF is a buy for me.

Mid January 2025 and Cautious Markets Ahead

 

With all the focus on the US and tariffs currently, Canada has it's own issues to work out as the government sort of sits in limbo until Parliament resumes in March after the ruling party, the Liberals vote on their new leader and Prime Minister. It looks like a Federal election could be coming later in 2025.

That's all rolling the stock markets plus inflation and interest rates could react to tariffs which Trump wants to add to Canada's exports looking for better trade deals to favour the US.

Meanwhile, in Canada and with the banks, TD continues to be one of the most active stocks these days as it's price is above $80 CAD currently rallying about $10 from a recent low. With energy, CNQ, Canadian Natural Resources is on that most active list off and on in the energy sector. Two of my most watched sectors as I accumulate shares in companies in both sectors moving forward.

It's been interesting reads from different Bloggers since the New Year rang in and how 2024 moved their portfolios. Different approaches, patience and sticking to their plans. I prefer large cap stocks such as in the top twenty by yield in the TSX 60 and others with low volatility. There's no management fees holding individual stocks and lately, I've been looking over some higher yield ETFs which have no management fees these days but always wise to dig into the fine print and prospectus, etc.

I'll use these added distributions from ETFs to buy more stocks, such as ENB, Enbridge and Fortis, FTS in February before the ex-dividend dates along with other stocks in that busy month for stocks in my portfolio.

Personally, I like the challenge of getting my portfolio up over 6% for a yearly gain, which is not difficult some years when the Markets are favourable. When Markets are down, I look forward to the dividend increases from my stocks plus gains which adds to my total return.  

I recently read the latest post from the Millennial Revolution Blog about their 2024 portfolio where they are into index tracking ETFs with 25% each in the US stocks, TSX, international and preferred shares. Re-balancing when needed with impressive numbers. I read their book when it came out called ... Quit Like a Millionaire.

Interesting about the preferred share ETF; ZPR, BMO Laddered Preferred Share Index with a current 5.8% yield in that article and a brief summary of how it works.

I look forward to looking over my stocks and any changes with the corporation and banks heading into the last half of January, 2025 and ahead to February where Utilities and the Insurance/Financial sectors are on my mind.

I'm overweight with the utility/energy stock, EMA in my portfolio but with it's natural gas assets in the US and AI Data Centre builds and expansion going ahead ... that could add up to additional revenue for the company. EMA, Emera Inc. has an ex-dividend date of January 31st, 2025 with a 5.59% current yield.