A Few Good Companies 2

To pick a few good companies, start with companies in the TMX sectors of Consumer Discretionary, Consumer Staples, Metals and Mining, Energy, Financial, Health Care, Industrials, Information Technology, Materials, Telecommunication Services, Utilities and REIT. On the TMX site these sectors are shown under TSX Capped Indexes.

So you look at the TMX web site for this list. If you click on an index and then go to the bottom of the page and click on Constituents, you can see what companies are on these lists. Only the bigger companies tend to be on these lists and these are the potential companies you are looking for.

For example if you click on Consumer Discretionary Index and look at the constituents, you would see companies like Canadian Tire (TSX-CTC.A). Do you shop there? This might be a good place to start.

You can also look TMX Indexes list. You might want to see what companies are in the 60 Index. These are the 60 biggest companies in the TSX and might get ideas of companies here to invest in. The other good index list is Canadian Dividend Aristocrats Index. These are considered the best dividend growth companies.

I want to insert here one word of caution. Just because a company is listed on one of these indexes does not automatically make it a good company. For example a company on the Canadian Dividend Aristocrats Index might be paying out too much of their profits in dividends in order to stay on this list. Such a company would not be a good one for investment.

If you are thinking of investing in a company, get to know it. You can Google the company and go to the company's web site. For example the first company on the Canadian Dividend Aristocrats Index is Ag Growth International Inc. (TSX-AFN). If you Google this name you get their site of www.aggrowth.com/. In the top right hand corner of the site you can see the word "Investors". If you click on this word, you get their investor information section. Run your cursor over the word "Investors" you can get financial and dividend information.

You might want to get some opinions on some stocks you are considering. A site worth visiting would be Stock Chase. This site gives analysts' opinions from the media and gives the person and date the opinion was given.

If you have a trading account (and you will need one to buy stocks), most stock brokers give you access to their reports on companies.

On my other blog I am today writing about Calloway Real Estate Investment Trust (TSX-CWT.UN, OTC-CWYUF)...continue...

This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. See my site for an index to these blog entries and for stocks followed. Follow me on Twitter.