Montreal Gazette Portfolio

This portfolio was lunched some 18 years ago with Quebec companies and $100,000. It is currently worth over $800,000. The portfolio is up some 703% or has gained 12.3% per year. This is very good and shows what can be done buying some good stocks and not trading much. The portfolio manager is Christine Décarie.

There seems to be only one rule and that is changes can only be made at the end of each month. This is not the same group of stocks she started with but neither has she changed it that much. She does not do changes every month, just some months.

Not all of the stocks are dividend stocks. However if you are building a portfolio, you do not need all dividend stocks. You do not need to make brilliant choices about what stocks you buy. What you need to do is pick some decent stocks at a reasonable price and invest for the long term. I must admit that I still get the occasional non-dividend paying stock to each some extra money for the trading account.

The stocks in this portfolio are shown below. There is a recent write-up on this portfolio by Paul Delean of the Montreal Gazette.

Company	Ticker	Dividend
Lumenpulse Inc.	LMP	0.00%
Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc.	ATD.B	0.46%
Laurentian Bank of Canada	LB	4.89%
Canadian National Railway Co	CNR	1.78%
Quebecor Inc.	QBR.B	0.45%
Mediagrif Interactive Technologies Inc.	MDF	2.21%
Uni Select Inc.	UNS	1.10%
CGI Group Inc.	GIB.A	0.00%
Stella-Jones Inc.	SJ	0.94%
Fiera Capital Corp	FSZ	5.06%
Industrial Alliance Insurance and Financial Services Inc.	IAG	2.76%
Heroux-Devtek Inc.	HRX	0.00%
SNC-Lavalin Group Inc.	SNC	1.86%
Boralex Inc.	BLX	2.97%
Canam Group Inc.	CAM	1.61%

On my other blog I wrote yesterday about Superior Plus Corp. (TSX-SPB, OTC-SUUIF)... learn more. Tomorrow, I will write about Andrew Peller Ltd. (TSX-ADW.A, OTC-ADWPF)... learn more on Wednesday, August 31, 2016 around 10 am.

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. I do research for my own edification and I am willing to share. I write what I think and I may or may not be correct.

See my site for an index to these blog entries and for stocks followed. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk. The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.

Are We Still Capitalist?

Capitalism is a market system. Historically there were other market systems in Europe before capitalism, in China and the Middle East. Capitalism is noted for producing lots of capital. I wrote about this before in an article entitled Market Systems.

What I wonder is have we regulated capitalism out of existence? With what we are going doing are we only getting a few rich and that is it? One of the hall markets of a capitalist system is a large middle class. Is that really disappearing? According to a lot of articles I have read it is.

I recently read an article which said in the US more companies closing than new startup companies. Apparently this is the first time this had ever happened in the US. The following article is not the one I had read, but I just google about this subject and an interesting article came up. The link to this article is here. It does not say exactly what I had read, but it is close.

This process has been going on in Europe for some time. Europe seems to be having a hard time encouraging the formation of new companies. There is a site ranking countries and number of startups by country and US is far ahead of everyone else.

However, when it comes to ranking of Entrepreneurial Countries neither my country of Canada nor the US is in the top 15. However, we are not in the bottom 15 either but Italy, France, Spain and Germany are. There are 7 European countries in the bottom 15. However, it does look like Europe is trying to change. See this from this pamphlet from the European Digital Forum

Certainly there seems to be a lot of people that think capitalism is bad. Yet it is the system that made the Western world rich and gave us a middle class. Yes we still have poor people, but we have always had poor people. In the past there seemed to be only the rich and poor. There was never a middle class. Also, historically we are living better than we have ever lived before.

On my other blog I wrote yesterday about Evertz Technologies (TSX-ET, OTC-EVTZF)... learn more. Tomorrow, I will write about Jean Coutu Group Inc. (TSX-PJC.A, OTC-JCOUF)... learn more on Friday, August 26, 2016around 5 pm.

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. I do research for my own edification and I am willing to share. I write what I think and I may or may not be correct.

See my site for an index to these blog entries and for stocks followed. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk. The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.

Dividend Growth 5

I thought it might be interesting to compare older spreadsheets 5 year dividend growth rates in my spreadsheets from 2011 and later. What this spreadsheets shows that for when I compare the 5 year dividend growth rates from my 2015 spreadsheet to my current one 23.7% of the stocks show higher dividend growth, 22.3% show lower dividend growth and 54% show the same dividend growth.

For example, I have 139 stocks that are the same as 2015 as in the 2016 spreadsheet. Of these stocks 33 stocks or 23.7% had higher 5 year dividend growth, 31 stocks or 22.3% had lower 5 year dividend growth and 75 stocks or 54% had the same dividend growth.

Examples would be Canadian National Railway (TSX-CNR, NYSE-CNI) which grew its dividend. It had 5 year growth of 14.6% per year over the past 5years on my 2015 spreadsheet and 18.3% per year over the past 5years on my 2016 spreadsheet.

Ag Growth International (TSX-AFN, OTC-AGGZF) dividends declined because it had 5 year growth of 3.3% per year over the past 5years on my 2015 spreadsheet and 3.0% per year over the past 5years on my 2016 spreadsheet.

Bank of Nova Scotia (TSX-BNS, NYSE-BNS) dividends were the same because it had 5 year growth of 7.6% per year over the past 5years on my 2015 spreadsheet and 7.6% per year over the past 5years on my 2016 spreadsheet.

Compared to Current Spreadsheet	2015	2014	2013	2012	2011
Dividend growth increased	23.74%	59.70%	45.31%	42.11%	33.65%
Dividend growth decreased	22.30%	35.82%	51.56%	56.14%	65.38%
Dividend growth same	53.96%	4.48%	3.13%	1.75%	0.96%

We seem to be in a time of lower dividend growth. This can hardly be surprising. Our economies have not been doing that well. It has been a very long, very slow recovery from 2008.

On my other blog I wrote Monday, August 22, 2016 about ONEX Corp. (TSX-OCX, OTC-ONEXF)... learn more. Today, I will write about Evertz Technologies (TSX-ET, OTC-EVTZF)... learn more on Wednesday, August 24, 2016 around 5 pm.

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. I do research for my own edification and I am willing to share. I write what I think and I may or may not be correct.

See my site for an index to these blog entries and for stocks followed. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk. The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.

My computer is being fixed

My computer is being fixed, so I will have to publish again when I get my computer back. Hopefully I will get it back tomorrow.

FFO, AFFO

FFO is Funds from Operations and AFFO stands for Adjusted Funds from Operations. These measures of fund flows are often used for REITs and Utility stocks like pipelines. These measures used to also be used for income trust companies, but these no longer exist. AFFO and FFO are generally used to gauge a company's profit.

A problem with AFFO is that it does not have a standard definition. Generally the FFO is adjusted for recurring capital expenditures to maintain the REITs or Utilities assets. The calculation of both FFO and AFFO has changed over time so it is not that easy to see the real growth in what companies can pay out. The calculation used to be called Distributable Cash. Then we had FFO and currently people are switching to using AFFO, but may also look at FFO too.

The main reason for the use of FFO and AFFO is to decide if a company has enough money on hand to pay for dividends or distributions. Generally speaking a distribution ratio of 75% to 95% is considered the best. For some companies it is useful to look at Price/FFO Ratio or Price/AFFO Ratio in place of Price/Earnings per Share Ratio (P/EPS) to determine if the current stock price is reasonable.

David Harper wrote a recent article on Investopedia about REIT investments and using FFO and AFFO. Michael Bowman in a 2013 article in the Globe & Mail talked about using AFFO to look at pricing Utilities and their payout.

On my other blog I wrote yesterday about EnerCare Inc. (TSX-ECI, OTC-CSUWF)... learn more. Tomorrow, I will write about BlackBerry Ltd. (TSX-BB, NASDAQ-BBRY)... learn more on Friday, August 19, 2016 around 5 pm.

Also, on my book blog I have put a review of the book The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner learn more...

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. I do research for my own edification and I am willing to share. I write what I think and I may or may not be correct.

See my site for an index to these blog entries and for stocks followed. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk. The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.

Job Creation

From what I have learned from history, the answer to creating jobs is capitalism. Europe has almost strangled it completely with red tape. In Canada and the US we are not far behind. When Europe had their big explosion in population, they were industrializing under capitalism and created enough jobs.

I recently read an article which said in the US more companies closing than new startup companies. Apparently this is the first time this had ever happened in the US. The following article is not the one I had read, but I just google about this subject and an interesting article came up. The link to this article is here. It does not say exactly what I had read, but it is close.

Yes, there needs to be rules governing business. Government need to protect workers and protect the consumer. . However, you have to have some balance between rules governing business and letting business get on with business.

Europe has gone too far in protecting workers in the past. Now the protection only applies to older workers and the very few lucky young ones that can land a protected job. What is happening in Europe is that the youth are paying for the protection of older workers. There are no jobs for them.

And, it is the young that is expected to pay for the pension and health care of the old. I cannot see that working out. Pension and health care plans are on a pay as you go basis. That is money coming in is being used to pay for pensions and health care. If the young have no jobs how are they going to pay for these benefits?

On my other blog I wrote yesterday about Newfoundland Capital Corp. (TSX-NCC, OTC-none)... learn more. Tomorrow, I will write about EnerCare Inc. (TSX-ECI, OTC-CSUWF)... learn more on Wednesday, August 17, 2016 date around 5 pm.

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. I do research for my own edification and I am willing to share. I write what I think and I may or may not be correct.

See my site for an index to these blog entries and for stocks followed. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk. The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.

5 Year Running Averages

Sometimes using the 5 year running averages can put things is better perspective. It can show if there has been any growth over the past 5 year when a company has recent problems. The 5 year running averages for the past 5 years compare the average for the past 5 years to the average for past years of 6 to 10. The 5 year running averages for the past 10 years compare the average for the past 5 years to the average for the past years of 11 to 15.

For example, say I use 5 year running averages for EPS to 2015. The 5 year running average for the past 5 years looks at the 5 year average EPS in year 2015 to the 5 year average EPS in the year 2010. The 5 year running average for the past 10 years looks at the 5 year average EPS in year 2015 to the 5 year average EPS in the year 2005.

The 5 year running average calculation is simple. I am using Dorel Industries as an example. Here I use the EPS for the 5 years of 2011 to 2015 inclusive and dividend it by 5. So if the EPS for years 2011 to 2015 is $3.21, $3.39, $1.79, -$0.66, and $0.79. I get a sum of 8.52 and dividing this by 5 I get 1.70. If the 5 year average for 2010 is $3.15 then the IRR for the past 5 years is -11.59%. This is not quite as bad as the 5 year decline showing as -27.15%. See my spreadsheet on Dorel Industries Inc.

For Canam Group Inc. the IRR over the past 5 years for EPS is 244% per year. There is because 5 years ago the company earned less than $0.01 in EPS and in 2015 EPS was at $1.08. However, the 5 year running average for the past 5 year is -7.58% per year.

This is because the 5 year running average to 2010 is $0.65 and the current 5 year running average is $0.55. So for the 5 years to 2010 the company earned more than for the 5 years to 2015. This shows that 2015 was a very good year for the company, but that the last few years were not good years. See my spreadsheet on Canam Group Inc.

For Andrew Peller Ltd. when looking at 5 year running averages and current growth they point to a very different format. The 5 year growth is -5.38% per year because 5 years ago the company earned $1.49 and in 2015 the company earned $1.13.

However, if you look at 5 year running average, the growth is 8.01% per year. This is because for the 5 years to 2010 the EPS averaged $0.67 per year and for the 5 years ending in 2015, the EPS averaged $0.98 per year. For this stock EPS tends to be volatile, but they have done better over the past 5 years of 2011 to 2015 than for years 2006 to 2010. See my spreadsheet at Andrew Peller Ltd.

This sort of calculation can be useful when a company has just reported a bad year. It can also be useful say when EPS or CFPS varies are lot year from year. In some industries EPS and CFPS is more volatile than in other industries.

On my other blog I wrote yesterday about DirectCash Payments Inc. (TSX-DCI, OTC-DCTFF)... learn more. Tomorrow, I will write about Loblaw Companies Ltd. (TSX-L, OTC-LBLCF)... learn more on Friday, August 12, 2016 around 5 pm.

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. I do research for my own edification and I am willing to share. I write what I think and I may or may not be correct.

See my site for an index to these blog entries and for stocks followed. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk. The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.

Dividend Growth 4

First let me give a warning note. I am only dealing with approximately 150 stocks so the sample is small. I have mostly, but not exclusively large dividend growth stocks. So it is probably best to look at this as interesting but it may not necessarily reflecting what is happening in the TSX. However, I feel that it applies to me as I cover the stocks I own and also I am basically only interested in large dividend growth stocks and how they are doing.

This is a continuation of my Dividend Growth 3 post. Note that my index spreadsheet for 2016 has data for stock year end of 2015 and 2014. My index spreadsheet for 2015 has stock year end data for 2014. We are only just over half way through the year so I have updated some 58% of the stocks I follow.

Here I am look at median values using my columns for 5 Year Dividend Growth and 10 Year Dividend Growth columns for the current spreadsheet. I get a median growth of 5.9% over the past 5 years and a median growth of 7% over the past 10 years. This is including all increases, decreases and zero growth values. If I did the median value using only the stocks with a positive growth, it was at 9.3% over the past 5 years, but only 8.9% over the past 10 years.

If I included in my median calculations only positive and zero growth stocks the median growth over the past 5 years is 8.2% and over the past 10 years is 8.7%. If I included only stocks with a negative growth (or declining dividends, my median values over the past 5 years is -7.8% and over the past 10 years is -4.42%.

Median Growth	DG 5	DG 10
Total Median Growth	5.85%	7.02%
Using only Positive Growth	9.27%	8.93%
Using Positive and Zero Growth	8.11%	8.70%
Using Negative growth	-7.79%	-4.42%

The growth or decline is better over the past 10 years than over the past 5 years for all categories but using only positive growth. So it would also seem that growth in dividends is slowing down.

If I do this same for my 2015 year end spreadsheet, I get the following values. It would seem that dividend growth was higher and negative growth was lower at the end of 2015 compared to the present. For example, total median growth over the past 5 and 10 years currently 5.9% and 7% whereas to the end of 2015 it was higher at 6.7% and 7.7%.

Median Growth	DG 5	DG 10
Total Median Growth	6.68%	7.66%
Using only Positive Growth	9.86%	9.33%
Using Positive and Zero Growth	8.89%	9.22%
Using Negative growth	-5.82%	-3.01%

My spreadsheet is here.

On my other blog I wrote yesterday about Ballard Power Systems Inc. (TSX-BLD, NASDAQ-BLDP)... learn more. Tomorrow, I will write about DirectCash Payments Inc. (TSX-DCI, OTC-DCTFF)... learn more on Wednesday, August 10, 2016 around 5 pm.

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. I do research for my own edification and I am willing to share. I write what I think and I may or may not be correct.

See my site for an index to these blog entries and for stocks followed. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk. The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.

Something to Buy August 2016

There is always something to buy in the stock market. On Tuesday, I put out a list of the stocks that I covered and showed what stock might be a good deal based on dividend yield. Now I am trying to categorize what sorts of stocks may be a good deal based on dividend yield.

The advantages to using dividend yield to judge how cheap or expensive a stock is, is that you are not using estimates or old data (like last reported quarter's data). You are using today's stock price and today's dividend yield.

For other testing, like using P/E Ratios and Price/Graham Price Ratios, you use EPS estimates or from the last reported financial quarter. When using P/S Ratios, P/CF Ratios or P/BV Ratios you are using data from the last reported financial quarter.

However, no system is perfect. But if you are interested in buy a stock a list of stocks cheap or reasonable using dividend yield data might be a good place to start.

Categorizing stocks is not as simple as it might seem. Every site you go to has categorized stocks a bit differently. I try to keep this as simple as possible. See Something to Buy August 2016 Spreadsheet to see what stocks are showing whether a stock is relatively cheap based on historical high dividend yields (P/Hi), historical average dividend yields (P/Ave), historical median dividend yields (P/Med) or on 5 year median dividend yields (P/5Yr). As in other spreadsheets, you can highlight a line or a number of lines for better viewing.

In the following notes I am only going to list stocks showing as cheap using the historical high dividend yields (P/Hi) and historical median dividend yields (P/Med).

I follow 20 stocks in the Consumer Discretionary category. None of these stocks are showing as cheap by the historically high dividend yield. Eight (or 40%) are showing cheap by historical median dividend yield. They are Dorel Industries (TSX-DII.B), Goeasy Ltd. (TSX-GSY, OTC-EHMEF), High Liner Foods (TSX-HLF); Leon's Furniture (TSX-LNF); Magna International Inc. (TSX-MG), Newfoundland Capital Corp (TSX-NCC.A), Reitmans (Canada) Ltd. (TSX-RET.A) and Thomson Reuters Corp (TSX-TRI).

I follow 12 Consumer Staples stocks. Empire Company Ltd. TSX-EMP.A, OTC-EMLAF) is showing as cheap by the historically high dividend yield. Three stocks (or 25%) are showing cheap by historical median dividend yield. These are Empire Company Ltd. (TSX-EMP.A, OTC-EMLAF), Jean Coutu Group Inc. (TSX-PJC.A, OTC-JCOUF) and Loblaw Companies (TSX-L, OTC-LBLCF). There is no change from last month.

I only follow two Health Care stocks and both are US stocks. They are both cheap by the historical median dividend yield. The stocks are Johnson and Johnson (NYSE-JNJ) and Medtronic Inc. (NYSE-MDT). This is the same as for last month.

I follow 7 Bank stocks. None are showing as cheap by the historically high dividend yield. Six stocks (or 86%) are showing cheap by the historical median dividend yield. These stocks are Bank of Nova Scotia (TSX-BNS); Barclays PLC (NYSE-BCS), Home Capital Group (TSX-HCG, OTC-HMCBF), National Bank of Canada (TSX-NA); Royal Bank (TSX-RY) and Toronto Dominion Bank (TSX-TD).

I follow 13 Financial Service stocks. None are showing as cheap by the historically high dividend yield. Eight (or 62%) stocks are showing cheap by the historical median dividend yield. These stocks are AGF Management Ltd (TSX-AGF.B); Alaris Royalty Corp (TSX-AD, OTC-ALARF), CI Financial (TSX-CIX); DirectCash Payments Inc. (TSX-DCI); Equitable Group Inc. (TSX-EQB, OTC-EQGPF), Gluskin Sheff + Associates Inc. (TSX-GS); IGM Financial (TSX-IGM) and Power Corp (TSX-POW) Alaris Royalty Corp (TSX-AD, OTC-ALARF) is new on this list.

I follow 5 Insurance stocks. None are showing as cheap by the historically high dividend yield. Four stocks (or 80%) are showing cheap by historical median dividend yield. These stocks are Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSX-GWO); Manulife Financial Corp (TSX-MFC); Power Financial Corp (TSX-PWF) and Sun Life Financial (TSX-SLF). There is no change from last month.

I follow 12 Real Estate stocks. No stock is showing as cheap by the historically high dividend yield. Four stocks (or 33%) are showing cheap by historical median dividend yield. They are Artis REIT (TSX-AX.UN); FirstService Corp (TSX-FSV), Granite Real Estate (TSX-GRT.UN) and Melcor Developments Inc. (TSX-MRD. There is no change from last month.

I follow 34 Industrial stocks. Because I have so many and Industrial is not very descriptive, I have divided my Industrial stocks into 4 separate categories under Industrial. They are Construction, Industrial, Manufacturing and (Business) Services. There is one less because I have reclassified some stocks in the Material section because TSX is classifying them this way.

I have 6 Construction stocks. None are cheap by the historically high dividend yield. Two stocks or 33% are showing as cheap by historical median dividend yield. They are SNC-Lavalin (TSX-SNC, OTC-SNCAF) and Stantec Inc. (TSX-STN, NYSE-STN)). Toromont Industries Ltd (TSX-TIH, OTC-TMTNF is off this list.

I have 3 stocks I have left with the sub-index of Industrial. None are cheap by the historically high dividend yield. Two stocks or 67% are showing as cheap by historical median dividend yield. They are Finning International Inc. (TSX-FTT, OTC-FINGF), and Russel Metals (TSX-RUS, OTC-RUSMF). This is the same as last month.

I have 9 Manufacturing stocks. No stock is showing as cheap by the historically high dividend yield. Five stocks or 56% are showing as cheap by historical median dividend yield. They are Canam Group Inc. (TSX-CAM, OTC-CNMGA), Exco Technologies Ltd. (TSX-XTC, OTC-EXCOF), Hammond Power Solutions Inc. (TSX-HPS.A, OTC-HMDPF), Intertape Polymer Group Inc. (TSX-ITP, OTC-ITPOF) and PFB Corp (TSX-PFB, OTC-PFBOF). Canam Group Inc. (TSX-CAM, OTC-CNMGA) is newly on this list.

I have 16 Services stocks. Pason Systems Inc. (TSX-PSI, OTC-PSYTF) is showing as cheap by the historically high dividend yield. Four stocks or 25% are showing as cheap by historical median dividend yield. These stocks are Canadian National Railway (TSX-CNR, NYSE-CNI); Pason Systems Inc. (TSX-PSI, OTC-PSYTF) Transcontinental Inc. (TSX-TCL.A, OTC-TCLAF) and Wajax Corp (TSX-WJX, OTC-WJXFF). Wajax Corp (TSX-WJX, OTC-WJXFF) is new to this list.

I follow 7 Material stocks. None are showing as cheap by the historically high dividend yield. One stock or 16% are showing as cheap by historical median dividend yield. That stock is Methanex Corp (TSX-MX, NASDAQ-MEOH). There is no change from last month.

I follow 9 Energy stocks. Two Stock or (22%) is showing as cheap by the historical high dividend yield. It is Ensign Energy Services (TSX-ESI, OTC-ESVIF) and Suncor Energy (TSX-SU, NYSE-SU). There are three stocks (or 33%) showing cheap by historical median dividend yield. They are Canadian Natural Resources (TSX-CNQ, NYSE-CNQ); Ensign Energy Services (TSX-ESI, OTC-ESVIF); and Suncor Energy (TSX-SU, NYSE-SU).

I follow 7 Tech stocks. None are showing as cheap by historical high dividend yield. Four stocks (or 50%) are showing cheap by historical median dividend yield. They are Absolute Software Corporation (TSX-ABT, OTC-ALSWF); Calian Technologies Ltd (TSX-CTY, OTC-CLNFF), Computer Modelling Group Ltd. (TSX-CMG, OTC-CMDXF) and Evertz Technologies (TSX-ET, OTC-EVTZF). There is no change from last month.

I follow 8 of the Infrastructure type utility companies. None are showing as cheap by historical high dividend yield. Three stocks (or 38%) are showing cheap by historical median dividend yield. They are AltaGas Ltd (TSX-ALA, OTC-ATGFF); Enbridge Inc. (TSX-ENB, NYSE-ENB), and Veresen Inc. (TSX-VSN, OTC-FCGYF). There is no change from last month.

I follow 12 of the Power type utility companies. None are showing as cheap by the historically high dividend yield. One stock (or 8%) is showing cheap by historical median dividend yield. That stock is ATCO Ltd (TSX-ACO.X, OTC-ACLLF). There is no change from last month.

I follow 5 of the Telecom Service type utility companies. No stock is showing cheap by the historical high dividend yield. Three stocks (or 60%) are showing cheap by historical median dividend yield. These stocks are Shaw Communications Inc. (TSX-SJR.B, NYSE-SJR); Telus Corp. (TSX-T, NYSE-TU) and WiLan Inc. (TSX-WIN, NASDAQ-WILN). Manitoba Telecom (TSX-MBT, OTC-MOBAF is off on this list.

On my other blog I wrote yesterday about TECSYS Inc. (TSX-TCS, OTC-TCYSF) ... learn more. Tomorrow, I will write about Savaria Corporation (TSX-SIS, OTC-SISXF)... learn more on Friday, July 08, 2016 around 5 pm.

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. I do research for my own edification and I am willing to share. I write what I think and I may or may not be correct.

See my site for an index to these blog entries and for stocks followed. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk . The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.

Dividend Stocks August 2016

First I want to point out that not all of the stocks I follow are great investments. I follow a diverse selection of stocks. There are some that I would never invest in personally. I follow a number of resource stocks even though I personally have little invested in this area. I follow what I find interesting and with resource stocks, I think it is important for Canadians to know what is happening in the resource area. On the other hand I do follow of good number of great dividend growth stocks.

The theory is that you should use the dividend yield to see if a dividend stock is selling at a stock price that is relatively cheap. A stock price is considered cheap if it is selling at a dividend yield higher than the historical high yield or higher than the historical average yield or historical median yield. See my spreadsheet at dividend growth stocks that I just updated for August 2016.

• I have 4 stocks with a dividend yield higher than the historical high dividend yield,
• I have 37 stocks with a dividend yield higher than the historical average dividend yield
• I have 63 stocks with a dividend yield higher than the historical median dividend yield and
• 52 stocks with a dividend yield higher than the 5 year average dividend yield.

When I did my list last month,

• I have 5 stocks with a dividend yield higher than the historical high dividend yield,
• I have 38 stocks with a dividend yield higher than the historical average dividend yield
• I have 62 stocks with a dividend yield higher than the historical median dividend yield and
• 54 stocks with a dividend yield higher than the 5 year average dividend yield.

When I did my list in January 2014,

• I had 9 stocks with a dividend yield higher than the historical high dividend yield,
• I had 45 stocks with a dividend yield higher than the historical average dividend yield and
• 39 stocks with a dividend yield higher than the 5 year average dividend yield.

If you had one share of each stock, total dividends last month would be $147.68. . This month dividends would be $150.10. Of the stock that I follow 4 stocks has raised their dividends since last month. Dividends raises are denoted in green. Those stocks are shown below.

Alimentation Couche-Tard (TSX-ATD.B, OTC-ANCUF)
AltaGas Ltd. (TSX-ALA, OTC-ATGFF)
Emera Inc. (TSX-EMA, OTC-EMRAF)
TECSYS Inc. (TSX-TCS, OTC-TCYSF)

Of the stocks that I follow no company has decreased their dividends.

Of the stocks that I follow no company has suspended their dividends.

Most of my stocks started out as Dividend Payers. Currently 14 stocks are not paying any dividends and this would be some 9.5% of the stocks that I follow. Three of these stocks never had dividends, so 7.4% of the stocks I follow have suspended their dividends. The three stocks that never paid dividends are Ballard Power Systems Inc. (TSX-BLD, NASDAQ-BLDP0, Blackberry Ltd. (TSX-BB, NASDAQ-BBRY) and Kombat Copper Inc. (TSX-KBT, OTC-PNTZF)

I am showing whether a stock is relatively cheap based on historical high dividend yields (P/Hi), historical average dividend yields (P/Ave), historical median dividend yields (P/Med) or on 5 year median dividend yields (P/5Yr). See these fields on the right side of the file. You can highlight a particular stock using your cursor to highlight the appropriate line.

There are always some stocks to buy because they are priced reasonably. There are always stocks to currently avoid because they are overpriced. Looking at dividend growth stocks that are selling at stock prices that give them a dividend yield above the historical median dividend yield are probably the best bet.

The stocks that are selling at prices that give them a dividend yield above the historical high yield could be good stocks to buy. However, these stocks may be selling so cheap because of current troubles, especially financial troubles and should be treated with caution. Do not forget that I have all the stocks I follow on this spreadsheet and some are much better investments than others.

You should always investigate a stock before you buy. Sometimes different stocks in certain sectors are just out of favour or the stock market is just in one of its declines. However, a stock may be relatively cheap because it has problems. That is why you should always investigate a stock before buying.

Looking at stock this way is equivalent to a stock filter. A main problem I know of is for the old income trusts. These companies have generally lowered their dividend yields forever and they will probably never get back to the old dividend yield highs they made as an income trust company. For these stocks, you might be better comparing the current dividend yield to the 5 year median dividend yield.

Also, on some stocks I have a lot more information years in my spreadsheets than for other stocks. So, finding a stock on the list as "cheap" is only the first step in finding a stock to buy. This is the same with any other sort of stock filters that you can use.

The last thing to remember is that I have entering figures into a spreadsheet. I could put them in incorrectly, I can transpose figures and I can misread figures. This is another great reason why you should check a stock out before investing. As this is just a filter, it works better on some stocks than on others.

See my entry on my methodology in establishing the historical dividend yield highs and lows for the stocks that I cover. I have an entry on my introduction to Dividend Growth. You might want to look at my original entry on Dividend Growth Stocks. I have also written about why I like Dividend Growth companies.

On my other blog I wrote today about Pulse Seismic Inc. (TSX-PSD, OTC-PLSDF)... learn more. Tomorrow, I will write about TECSYS Inc. (TSX-TCS, OTC-TCYSF) ... learn more on Wednesday, August 3, 2016 around 5 pm.

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. I do research for my own edification and I am willing to share. I write what I think and I may or may not be correct.

See my website for stocks followed and investment notes. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk. The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter or StockTwits.