Quarterly Reports and Lifeco in February 2025

 

I look forward to Quarterly Reports with the stocks I own, anticipating decent reports with guidance in capital and dividends to shareholders. What's been done to improve business in the past months and what they are working on currently. Hopefully that wraps up with an increase in future cash dividends to shareholders. 

Kind of like waiting to watch a new action movie release that's been advertised hoping it's good throughout and not just the highlights in the preview.

However, there's a number of issues that can arise in past months or over a year that's been weighing on a company or bank. TD bank is good example of that here in Canada and looks like it's heading in the right direction with a new CEO and brought in billions from selling a US bank stock it owned.  

TD's stock price has increased by over 10% since Jan 1, 2025. Good to see where I own the stock and had patience for the bank to work through it's US issues and slowly get back on track.

Turning to finance/insurance companies or Lifecos, Manulife, MFC ... Great-West Life, GWO and Sun Life, SLF are on my buy list with ex-dividend dates at the end of February, 2025 and into early March.

Manulife Financial will release it's quarterly report on the 19th of February. It's also in February when they have increased their dividend in past years and MFC will be announcing it's ex-dividend date for February, 2025. I'll be watching to see the results.

Sun Life Financial has been increasing it's dividend in May and November in past years. SLF's recent quarterly report fell below analysts expectations due to some impairment charges in Vietnam but offset by it's dental business and the stock took a nose dive on the 12th of February. There's more information on all that reading through their 4th quarter report for 2024.

When stocks drop due to short term fluctuations, that's when I prefer to buy. SLF's ex-dividend date is on the 26th of February, 2025 with a current 4.30% yield with the company currently valued at 54 billion.

Great-West Lifeco increased it's dividend by 10% and has an ex-dividend date of March 3rd, 2025 with a record 2024 base earnings in the companies recent reports. GWO has a yield of 4.73%

I focus on dividends with my stocks but also look for growth and using GWO for an example with a one year return of 27.87% beating the S&P/TSX Composite with 23.80%.

Heading over to the Energy sector and with an ex-dividend of March 4th, 2025 ... Suncor Energy, SU continues to put up decent numbers under CEO Kruger with a 4% yield.

As my portfolio grows and I add stocks I researched, I searched for some free portfolio sites that calculate dividends and growth among other stats and I've seen more of a shift to those metrics although filled with Ads.

Registering with Yahoo Finance which I did years ago, they now have an enhanced stock list I can build under My Portfolio and totals dividends per month. More features are available for an upgrade to Premium but the enhanced version has all the info I need. I guess a lazy approach to updating an excel spreadsheet.

On the Microsoft Edge browser ... MSN and scrolling over to Money and My Watchlist has the similar features as Yahoo Finance and more with a kind of a TradingView look.

Joining the no commission fee trend like Wealthsimple, Questrade announced last week that there are now zero commission fees for trading stocks and ETFs. Cool and funding the minimum required by Questrade, the portfolio tracker ... Passiv's upgrade is a bonus by following the sign up process.

Although Ads are included on free versions of portfolio, watchlist and dividend trackers I mentioned, there is more catering to the DIY investor than in the past in my opinion and that's how these sites make their money through Ads and upgrade subscriptions

I've highlighted Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, BIP-UN.TO on my Watchlist and I've been reading up on their business. My plan is to add that company based in Bermuda towards the end of February. The company has been spending big bucks on buying Data Centres and Cell Towers primarily in the US geared towards AI. 

Keyera Corp, KEY.TO is a Canadian mid stream pipeline based in Calgary, Alberta I've had on my Watchlist for years. Where I own PPL and ENB it was about too much concentration in that sector but with Canada debating about becoming more independent of US trade, perhaps it could be good timing to buy KEY in March. Just my opinions on all these stocks I write about as always.

February 18th: An interesting article on the Globe and Mail by Rob Carrick I can share with my subscription about 24 stocks and dividend growth from Tom Connolly. Hopefully the link will open multiple times for readers.

Dividend growth helps drive higher share prices for long-term investors

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.