Last updated by BM on August 12, 2025
Summary
Welcome to this week’s MP Market Review – your go-to source for insights and updates on the Canadian dividend growth companies we track on The List! While we’ve expanded our watchlists to include U.S. companies The List-USA, our Canadian lineup remains the cornerstone of our coaching approach.
Don’t miss out on exclusive newsletters and premium content that will help you sharpen your investing strategy. Explore it all at magicpants.substack.com.
Your journey to dividend growth mastery starts here – let’s dive in!
- Last week, dividend growth of The List stayed the same with an average return of +6.9% YTD (income).
- Last week, the price of The List was up from the previous week with an average return of +8.8% YTD (capital).
- Last week, there were no dividend announcements from companies on The List.
- Last week, there were seven earnings reports from companies on The List.
- This week, four companies from The List will report on earnings.
DGI Clipboard
“Usually, a very long list of securities is not a sign of a brilliant investor but one who is not sure of himself.”
– Philip Fisher
The All-Canadian DGI Portfolio
Intro
One question from subscribers has come up more than almost any others:
“How would you invest right now if you were starting from scratch?”
Our dividend growth investing strategy produces such predictable returns that simply buying the highest-quality companies from The List and holding them long term has historically been a winning formula. I’ve called this the “No-Look DGI Portfolio” in past writings.
In light of today’s macro environment, I’m making a few tweaks. The portfolio will shrink from twenty to thirteen stocks, and instead of equal weighting, each position will follow our recommended size based on current valuation.
All companies in this updated portfolio have at least twenty consecutive years of dividend growth, with a few exceptions worth noting. TD Bank and Royal Bank of Canada were forced to pause dividend increases in 2010 during the financial crisis by the federal government, so we are making the assumption that their long-term dividend growth records would have remained intact. Franco-Nevada is the only stock without a two-decade streak, included here because it’s one of my highest-conviction ideas for today’s market. Finally, a few names have been removed from the original No-Look DGI Portfolio due to weaker growth prospects in the current environment.
Here are the ten-year historical performance metrics for our new All-Canadian DGI Portfolio:
A couple of observations stand out immediately. First, the portfolio delivered an annualized total return of 12.5% from January 1, 2015, to December 31, 2024, compared with 8.65% for the TSX Composite Index. That’s an outperformance of more than 40%. I was unable to find a Canadian Dividend ETF or an actively managed Canadian dividend fund that performed better. If you locate one, please send it along.
Second, annualized dividend growth and price growth are remarkably aligned at 8.6% and 8.2% respectively, reinforcing our belief that as dividends grow, so does price.
Finally, the All Canadian DGI Portfolio’s price-only return is keeping pace with the TSX Composite again this year, up 12.2% as of last Friday. Dividend growth is also strong at 7% year-to-date. These are mature companies with decades of history, yet they continue to raise dividends and deliver above-average returns even today.
Takeaway
Later this week, I’ll share the valuation-weighted All-Canadian DGI Portfolio (exclusive to paid subscribers), complete with position sizing columns. With that information, you have the option to invest equally in each company as in the No-Look DGI Portfolio or apply our position sizing strategy to fine-tune your allocations based on today’s valuation.
Become a paid partner, and I’ll show you exactly how I do it. With real money. In real stocks. In addition, gain full access to this post and exclusive, subscriber-only content. We do the work; you stay in control. Subscribe today and take your dividend growth investing to the next level!
DGI Scorecard
The List (2025)
The Magic Pants 2025 list includes 29 Canadian dividend growth stocks. Here are the criteria to be considered a candidate on ‘The List’:
- Dividend growth streak: 10 years or more.
- Market cap: Minimum one billion dollars.
- Diversification: Limit of five companies per sector, preferably two per industry.
- Cyclicality: Exclude REITs and pure-play energy companies due to high cyclicality.
Based on these criteria, companies are added or removed from ‘The List’ annually on January 1. Prices and dividends are updated weekly.
‘The List’ is not a portfolio but a coaching tool that helps us think about ideas and risk manage our model portfolio. We own some but not all the companies on ‘The List’. In other words, we might want to buy these companies when valuation looks attractive.
Our newsletter provides readers with a comprehensive insight into the implementation and advantages of our Canadian dividend growth investing strategy. This evidence-based, unbiased approach empowers DIY investors to outperform both actively managed dividend funds and passively managed indexes and dividend ETFs over longer-term horizons.
Performance of ‘The List’
Last week, dividend growth stayed the same, with an average return of +6.9% YTD (income).
The price of ‘The List’ was up from the previous week, with an average YTD return of +8.8% (capital).
Even though prices may fluctuate, the dependable growth in our income does not. Stay the course. You will be happy you did.
Last week’s best performers on ‘The List’ were goeasy Ltd. (GSY-T), up +10.66%.; Franco Nevada (FNV-N), up +6.13%; and Emera (EMA-T) up +3.74%.
Canadian Tire (CTC-A-T) was the worst performer last week, down -13.22%.
| SYMBOL | COMPANY | YLD | PRICE | YTD % | DIV | YTD % | STREAK |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ATD-T | Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. | 1.1% | $69.99 | -11.46% | $0.78 | 8.3% | 15 |
| BCE-T | Bell Canada | 8.6% | $33.51 | -0.03% | $2.87 | -28.1% | 16 |
| BIP-N | Brookfield Infrastructure Partners | 5.7% | $30.10 | -5.52% | $1.72 | 6.2% | 17 |
| CCL-B-T | CCL Industries Inc. | 1.6% | $78.51 | 6.64% | $1.28 | 10.3% | 23 |
| CNR-T | Canadian National Railway | 2.8% | $127.33 | -13.25% | $3.55 | 5.0% | 29 |
| CTC-A-T | Canadian Tire | 4.4% | $159.70 | 3.90% | $7.10 | 1.4% | 14 |
| CU-T | Canadian Utilities Limited | 4.8% | $38.13 | 9.63% | $1.83 | 1.0% | 53 |
| DOL-T | Dollarama Inc. | 0.2% | $190.62 | 35.96% | $0.41 | 18.1% | 14 |
| EMA-T | Emera | 4.3% | $66.91 | 25.00% | $2.90 | 0.7% | 18 |
| ENB-T | Enbridge Inc. | 5.8% | $64.69 | 4.56% | $3.77 | 3.0% | 29 |
| ENGH-T | Enghouse Systems Limited | 5.1% | $22.54 | -16.70% | $1.16 | 16.0% | 18 |
| FNV-N | Franco Nevada | 0.9% | $171.59 | 41.66% | $1.52 | 5.6% | 17 |
| FTS-T | Fortis Inc. | 3.5% | $69.91 | 17.26% | $2.46 | 3.1% | 51 |
| GSY-T | goeasy Ltd. | 2.9% | $200.63 | 20.02% | $5.84 | 24.8% | 10 |
| IFC-T | Intact Financial | 1.9% | $279.00 | 6.10% | $5.32 | 9.9% | 20 |
| L-T | Loblaw Companies Limited | 1.0% | $228.07 | 19.90% | $2.21 | 15.2% | 13 |
| MFC-T | Manulife Financial | 4.3% | $41.41 | -5.76% | $1.76 | 10.0% | 11 |
| MGA-N | Magna | 4.6% | $42.47 | 1.75% | $1.94 | 2.1% | 15 |
| MRU-T | Metro Inc. | 1.4% | $104.95 | 16.39% | $1.48 | 10.4% | 30 |
| RY-T | Royal Bank of Canada | 3.3% | $182.37 | 5.86% | $6.04 | 7.9% | 14 |
| SJ-T | Stella-Jones Inc. | 1.6% | $77.77 | 6.55% | $1.24 | 10.7% | 20 |
| STN-T | Stantec Inc. | 0.6% | $150.74 | 33.27% | $0.89 | 7.3% | 13 |
| T-T | Telus | 7.4% | $22.10 | 12.58% | $1.64 | 7.0% | 21 |
| TD-T | TD Bank | 4.2% | $100.76 | 31.71% | $4.20 | 2.9% | 14 |
| TFII-N | TFI International | 2.1% | $86.17 | -35.02% | $1.80 | 12.5% | 14 |
| TIH-T | Toromont Industries | 1.5% | $140.86 | 24.54% | $2.08 | 8.3% | 35 |
| TRI-Q | Thomson Reuters | 1.3% | $179.96 | 10.83% | $2.38 | 10.2% | 31 |
| TRP-T | TC Energy Corp. | 5.0% | $67.97 | -0.37% | $3.40 | 3.3% | 24 |
| WCN-N | Waste Connections | 0.7% | $187.89 | 10.58% | $1.26 | 7.7% | 15 |
| Averages | 3.2% | 8.8% | 6.9% | 21 |
Note: Stocks ending in “-N or -Q” declare earnings and dividends in US dollars. To achieve currency consistency between dividends and share price for these stocks, we have shown dividends in US dollars and share price in US dollars (these stocks are listed on a US exchange). The dividends for their Canadian counterparts (-T) would be converted into CDN dollars and would fluctuate with the exchange rate.
PAID subscribers enjoy full access to our enhanced weekly newsletter, premium content, and easy-to-follow trade alerts so they can build DGI portfolios alongside ours. This service provides the resources to develop your DGI business plan confidently. We do the work; you stay in control!
It truly is the subscription that pays dividends!
The greatest investment you can make is in yourself. Are you ready to take that step?
For more articles and the full newsletter, check us out on magicpants.substack.com.
