Last updated by BM on April 18, 2022
“I like to see that the company was capable of increasing its dividends in the good times and the bad so that I’m more comfortable relying on that income in the future.” -Lowell Miller, The Single Best Investment: Creating Wealth with Dividend Growth
There are many ways to determine ‘quality’ when selecting a company for your portfolio, but we always start with the dividend growth streak. When we put together ‘The List’ each year, we only select companies that have ten years or more of consecutive dividend growth. Determining if these companies will continue to grow their dividends is paramount in what we do. The fact that eight of the companies on ‘The List’ now have dividend growth streaks of twenty plus years, means that a high percentage of them will.
In case you were wondering, those eight companies if purchased on Jan.1, 2012, had an average annual total return of 11.6% and an average annual dividend growth rate of 10.7% over the next ten years!
Performance of ‘The List’
‘The List’ down a bit last week with a 3.1% YTD price return (capital). Dividend growth of ‘The List’ is 9.2% YTD, demonstrating the rise in income over last year.
The best performers last week on ‘The List’ were Canadian National Railroad (CNR-T) up 2.6%; Stantec (STN-T) up 2.6%; and Stella Jones (SJ-T) up 2.6%.
Enghouse Systems (ENGH-T) was the worst performer last week, down -5.3%.
Recent News
Stantec (ST-N) had another good week.
US Army Corps of Engineers Alaska District has selected Stantec (STN-T) for a five-year, civil works contract.
Under the indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity multiple award task order contract of US$18 million ($22.7 million), Stantec will provide architecture and engineering design services for civil works projects throughout Alaska.
Stantec (STN-T) is new to ‘The List’ in 2022 and has been in the news lately with their acquisition of UK Consultancy Barton Whitmore and another new project award from Trillium Health Partners in Ontario. Proposed government infrastructure spending can only help the bottom line of this global engineering, architecture, and environmental consulting company.
In other news, inflation continues to be top of mind. In the U.S., inflation hit a rate of 8.5 per cent. That’s the highest in 40 years. In Canada, February’s inflation rate was 5.7 per cent.
How does inflation affect the average person? At an 8.5% inflation rate, a person who works for 12 months and is paid the same amount each month effectively works one month for free.
To control inflation, the Bank of Canada is quickly raising its benchmark rate. They announced a 0.5% rate increase this past week and expect to continue this aggressive approach for the rest of the year. Rate increases are the main tool in our central banks toolbox to help control inflation.
Companies with pricing power can pass along their higher costs due to inflation. Particularly if they sell necessities. Fortunately, some of our good dividend growers are in this category (think Dollarama, Loblaws and Metro to name a few). Companies that lack pricing power are likely to falter.
There is one company on ‘The List’ due to report earnings this week.
Metro (MRU-T) will release its second quarter fiscal 2022 results on Thursday April 21, 2022, before the market opens.
Dividend Increases
There were no companies on ‘The List’ that announced a dividend increase last week.
Earnings Releases
There were no companies on ‘The List’ that reported their earnings last week.
Below is a snapshot of ‘The List’ from last Friday’s close. For a sortable version of ‘The List’ please click on The List menu item.
‘The List’ is not meant to be a template for investors to copy exactly. Rather, its purpose is to provide investment ideas and a real-time illustration of dividend growth investing in action. It is not a ‘Buy List’ nor does it reflect the composition or returns of our Magic Pants Wealth-Builder (CDN) Portfolio. It is only a starting point for our analysis and discussion.
The List (2022)
Last updated by BM on April 14, 2022
*Note: The following graph is wide, you can scroll to the right on your device to see more of the data.
| SYMBOL | COMPANY | YLD | PRICE | YTD % | DIV | YTD % | STREAK |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AQN-N | Algonquin Power & Utilities | 4.4% | $15.62 | 8.9% | $0.68 | 2.3% | 11 |
| ATD-T | Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. | 0.8% | $56.42 | 8.3% | $0.44 | 18.1% | 12 |
| BCE-T | Bell Canada | 5.0% | $73.41 | 11.4% | $3.68 | 5.1% | 13 |
| BIP-N | Brookfield Infrastructure Partners | 3.2% | $66.73 | 9.2% | $2.16 | 5.9% | 14 |
| CCL-B-T | CCL Industries | 1.7% | $56.53 | -16.6% | $0.96 | 14.3% | 20 |
| CNR-T | Canadian National Railway | 1.8% | $160.43 | 3.6% | $2.93 | 19.1% | 26 |
| CTC-A-T | Canadian Tire | 2.8% | $185.50 | 1.3% | $5.20 | 10.6% | 11 |
| CU-T | Canadian Utilities Limited | 4.5% | $39.22 | 7.1% | $1.78 | 1.0% | 50 |
| DOL-T | Dollarama Inc. | 0.3% | $73.12 | 15.3% | $0.22 | 9.2% | 11 |
| EMA-T | Emera | 4.1% | $64.53 | 3.1% | $2.65 | 2.9% | 15 |
| ENB-T | Enbridge Inc. | 5.9% | $58.27 | 17.6% | $3.44 | 3.0% | 26 |
| ENGH-T | Enghouse Systems Limited | 1.9% | $37.29 | -18.7% | $0.72 | 16.3% | 15 |
| FNV-N | Franco Nevada | 0.8% | $167.06 | 22.7% | $1.28 | 10.3% | 14 |
| FTS-T | Fortis | 3.4% | $63.50 | 5.0% | $2.14 | 4.4% | 48 |
| IFC-T | Intact Financial | 2.2% | $182.49 | 11.5% | $4.00 | 17.6% | 17 |
| L-T | Loblaws | 1.3% | $115.46 | 12.4% | $1.46 | 6.6% | 10 |
| MGA-N | Magna | 3.0% | $60.73 | -25.6% | $1.80 | 4.7% | 12 |
| MRU-T | Metro | 1.5% | $71.93 | 7.3% | $1.10 | 10.0% | 27 |
| RY-T | Royal Bank of Canada | 3.5% | $136.86 | 0.0% | $4.80 | 11.1% | 11 |
| SJ-T | Stella-Jones Inc. | 2.1% | $38.60 | -5.1% | $0.80 | 11.1% | 17 |
| STN-T | Stantec Inc. | 1.1% | $63.73 | -9.2% | $0.71 | 6.8% | 10 |
| TD-T | TD Bank | 3.8% | $93.99 | -5.4% | $3.56 | 12.7% | 11 |
| TFII-N | TFI International | 1.3% | $81.23 | -26.7% | $1.08 | 12.5% | 11 |
| TIH-T | Toromont Industries | 1.3% | $121.39 | 6.8% | $1.52 | 15.2% | 32 |
| TRP-T | TC Energy Corp. | 4.9% | $72.45 | 21.3% | $3.57 | 4.4% | 21 |
| T-T | Telus | 3.9% | $33.71 | 13.3% | $1.31 | 4.4% | 18 |
| WCN-N | Waste Connections | 0.7% | $139.08 | 3.7% | $0.92 | 8.9% | 12 |
| Averages | 2.6% | 3.1% | 9.2% | 18 |
