Most annual reports show what dividends have been declared in a year, not what dividends they have actually paid. What a company declares in a year and what they pay in a year may or may not be the same. As a shareholder you want to know what you actually get paid and when. It can get confusing.
For dividends, you have a declaration date, ex-dividend date, dividend record date and dividend payment date. The declaration date is the date a company declares it will pay a dividend. The ex-dividend date is 2 business days before the dividend record date. (Most charts that give dividend information use the ex-dividend date.) The dividend record date is date that if you are the shareholder of record you will get the dividend. The dividend payment date is the actual day the dividend is paid.
In the following notice, February 20, 2014 is the declaration date. The ex-dividend date is March 27, 2014. The dividend record date is March 31, 2014 and the date the dividend is paid is April 30, 2014.
"CALGARY, ALBERTA--(Marketwired - Feb. 20, 2014) - TransCanada Corporation (TSX:TRP) (NYSE:TRP) (TransCanada or the Company) today announced that the Board of Directors (Board) of TransCanada declared a quarterly dividend of $0.48 per common share for the quarter ending March 31, 2014, on the Company's outstanding common shares. This is a four per cent increase over the $0.46 dividend per share paid in each of the previous four quarters. The common share dividend is payable on April 30, 2014, to shareholders of record at the close of business on March 31, 2014."
When you are buying or selling a stock, it is the ex-dividend date that you should look at. This is the date used in determining who actually gets the dividend. When you are collecting dividends, it is the payment date that is important. In my spreadsheets, I use the dividends that get paid in the applicable calendar year.
Some companies give you good information on past and current dividends. One such company is TransCanada and their dividend information is shown here.
On my other blog I am today writing about Enbridge Inc. (TSX-ENB, NYSE-ENB) ... 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. 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. Follow me on Twitter.
Monday, March 30, 2015
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Dividend Payment Cycles
There are three cycle for the companies that pay quarterly. They are:
Cycle 1: January, April, July, October
Cycle 2: February, May, August, November
Cycle 3: March, June, September, December
This means that if a company is paying dividends in cycle 1, dividends will be paid in January, April, July and October. Some companies pay monthly, especially the old income trust companies, but there are fewer and fewer of these. However, a few companies have started monthly payments. For example Mullen Group Ltd. (TSX-MTL) switched from a quarterly dividend to a monthly dividend in 2013.
Click here to get the table of payment cycles for the stock I cover. You can use your mouse to high light a line (i.e. the stock, symbol and corresponding Dividend Payment Cycle (DP)). The table lists the stocks by name in the first section and by Cycle in the second section.
When you are getting your income from dividends, a lot of people want to have their income spread out evenly over the months. This is hard to do as most dividends are paid in cycle 1. Also even within cycles some are paid near the first of the cycle, some in the middle and other at the end.
I do record a stocks dividend cycle, but some stocks do not keep to a particular cycle, so this can cause some confusion. The thing is, some companies pick a cycle and stay with it. Others do not. A company may pay some dividends in cycle 1 and some in cycle 2. Some may pay in Cycles 2 or 3. Some may pay in cycle 3 or 1. If a company pays dividends sometimes in Cycle 3 and sometimes in cycle 1, you can get a situation where one year has 3 dividends and the next year has 5 dividends. However, you do get all your dividends in the end.
I personally do not bother with this. Each December I draw up a budget and I figure out how much I will draw each month from dividends for the following year. I put money in an ING account in December each year from my Registered Accounts. Near the end of each month I put that pre-determined monthly amount in my chequing account. The ING account is used when my dividends in my Trading account is not enough for my monthly withdrawal.
On my other blog I am today writing about Richelieu Hardware Ltd (TSX-RCH, OTC-RHUHF) ... 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. 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. Follow me on Twitter.
Cycle 1: January, April, July, October
Cycle 2: February, May, August, November
Cycle 3: March, June, September, December
This means that if a company is paying dividends in cycle 1, dividends will be paid in January, April, July and October. Some companies pay monthly, especially the old income trust companies, but there are fewer and fewer of these. However, a few companies have started monthly payments. For example Mullen Group Ltd. (TSX-MTL) switched from a quarterly dividend to a monthly dividend in 2013.
Click here to get the table of payment cycles for the stock I cover. You can use your mouse to high light a line (i.e. the stock, symbol and corresponding Dividend Payment Cycle (DP)). The table lists the stocks by name in the first section and by Cycle in the second section.
When you are getting your income from dividends, a lot of people want to have their income spread out evenly over the months. This is hard to do as most dividends are paid in cycle 1. Also even within cycles some are paid near the first of the cycle, some in the middle and other at the end.
I do record a stocks dividend cycle, but some stocks do not keep to a particular cycle, so this can cause some confusion. The thing is, some companies pick a cycle and stay with it. Others do not. A company may pay some dividends in cycle 1 and some in cycle 2. Some may pay in Cycles 2 or 3. Some may pay in cycle 3 or 1. If a company pays dividends sometimes in Cycle 3 and sometimes in cycle 1, you can get a situation where one year has 3 dividends and the next year has 5 dividends. However, you do get all your dividends in the end.
I personally do not bother with this. Each December I draw up a budget and I figure out how much I will draw each month from dividends for the following year. I put money in an ING account in December each year from my Registered Accounts. Near the end of each month I put that pre-determined monthly amount in my chequing account. The ING account is used when my dividends in my Trading account is not enough for my monthly withdrawal.
On my other blog I am today writing about Richelieu Hardware Ltd (TSX-RCH, OTC-RHUHF) ... 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. 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. Follow me on Twitter.
Monday, March 23, 2015
Beta
When I reviewed Home Capital Group recently, my sound bite was "Risky but price is reasonable." There is some concern about the riskiness of this stock and what might happen if the Real Estate Market fell in Ontario. I got a StockTwits back saying its Beta was 1.28 by someone who probably did not even glance at my report. However, I thought this would be a good time to talk about this subject.
The Beta number only tells you a stocks risk against the stock market. It can also only tell you about the stock's past. It has nothing to say about any special risk might be attached to a stock because of what industry it is in or how or where it does business. Beta cannot reflect specific concerns people may have with a company.
To reduce a stock's risk to one figure is, to put it mildly, rather foolish. Yes, it can be like a rule of thumb that works most of the time. It can give you an idea of a stock's risk to decide whether or not to do further investigations on a stock you are interested. However, you can also get blindsided if you define a stock's risk solely by one figure. Risk is a very complex subject.
To learn more about Beta a good place to start is Investopedia. For an explanation of Beta you can refer to the Investopedia site. Another Investopedia article explains the pros and cons of using Beta.
On my other blog I am today writing about Canadian Tire Corp. (TSX-CTC.A, OTC- CDNAF) ... 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. 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. Follow me on Twitter.
The Beta number only tells you a stocks risk against the stock market. It can also only tell you about the stock's past. It has nothing to say about any special risk might be attached to a stock because of what industry it is in or how or where it does business. Beta cannot reflect specific concerns people may have with a company.
To reduce a stock's risk to one figure is, to put it mildly, rather foolish. Yes, it can be like a rule of thumb that works most of the time. It can give you an idea of a stock's risk to decide whether or not to do further investigations on a stock you are interested. However, you can also get blindsided if you define a stock's risk solely by one figure. Risk is a very complex subject.
To learn more about Beta a good place to start is Investopedia. For an explanation of Beta you can refer to the Investopedia site. Another Investopedia article explains the pros and cons of using Beta.
On my other blog I am today writing about Canadian Tire Corp. (TSX-CTC.A, OTC- CDNAF) ... 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. 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. Follow me on Twitter.
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
REIT Investing
There are some good sites that provide information on REIT investing. The Which Mortgage site talks about how REITs are taxed and how to pick out a REIT for your portfolio. They also discuss buying REITs compared to individual investment properties and Private REITs.
This article from the Globe and Mail is from 2012, but tax on REIT distributions have not changed. The article discusses how the different parts of the distributions from REITs are taxed. All the REITs have tax information on their web sites.
The Shareowner site also has a good article on investing in REITs. Among other topics, it discusses common measurements of a REITs performance; include FFO, AFFO and NAV.
KPMG Canada has a very interesting presentation PDF which compares US and Canadian REITs. It is available here. This presentation includes such topics of the REIT history, what REITs can and cannot invest in, distributions and taxes.
The Canadian Institute of Public and Private Real Estate Companies (CIPREC) has a good report on REITs and why Canadians should invest in them. It talks about why you should invest in them and how they are structured for stability. They also discuss the different types of REITs.
On my other blog I am today writing about H & R Real Estate Trust (TSX-HR.UN, OTC- HRUFF) ... 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. 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. Follow me on Twitter.
This article from the Globe and Mail is from 2012, but tax on REIT distributions have not changed. The article discusses how the different parts of the distributions from REITs are taxed. All the REITs have tax information on their web sites.
The Shareowner site also has a good article on investing in REITs. Among other topics, it discusses common measurements of a REITs performance; include FFO, AFFO and NAV.
KPMG Canada has a very interesting presentation PDF which compares US and Canadian REITs. It is available here. This presentation includes such topics of the REIT history, what REITs can and cannot invest in, distributions and taxes.
The Canadian Institute of Public and Private Real Estate Companies (CIPREC) has a good report on REITs and why Canadians should invest in them. It talks about why you should invest in them and how they are structured for stability. They also discuss the different types of REITs.
On my other blog I am today writing about H & R Real Estate Trust (TSX-HR.UN, OTC- HRUFF) ... 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. 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. Follow me on Twitter.
Monday, March 16, 2015
REITs and Interest Rates
Why I am interested in interest rates and REITs is that we have been in a long period of interest rate decline. Since interest rates are at an all-time low, we have to expect at some point they will go up. The problem is I think no one really knows when this will happen. What I want to know is what effect potential future raise in interest rates will have on my REITs.
Unfortunately for us Canadians, a lot of information on REITs is American. However, basic principles in their REITs and ours would have to be the same. There is an article in Investopedia about interest rates and REITs. This paper concludes that there is a strong inverse relationship between REIT prices and Interest Rates.
There is also a paper from Altegris that talks about how REITs have behaved in the past when interest rates have gone up. They looked at REITs since 1972 and conclude an increase in Fed interest rates will not necessarily cause a fall in REIT stock prices. There are a number of other facts involved.
So it would appear that interest rate changes might only affect REIT stock prices. One good thing about REITs is that a lot of money made in REITs is from their Distributions. I have two. In one some 40% of my total return is from Distributions and in the other some 55% of my total return is from distributions.
The last thing to mention is that we have gone from historically high interest rates to historically low interest rates. A few years back people were saying that interest rates have a bottom of 0%. They were saying that negative interest rates could not happen. Yet, here we are with negative interest rates. Here is an Market Watch article about negative interest rates. As far as I know this has never happened before.
On my other blog I am today writing about RioCan Real Estate (TSX-REI.UN, OTC-RIOCF) ... 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. 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. Follow me on Twitter.
Unfortunately for us Canadians, a lot of information on REITs is American. However, basic principles in their REITs and ours would have to be the same. There is an article in Investopedia about interest rates and REITs. This paper concludes that there is a strong inverse relationship between REIT prices and Interest Rates.
There is also a paper from Altegris that talks about how REITs have behaved in the past when interest rates have gone up. They looked at REITs since 1972 and conclude an increase in Fed interest rates will not necessarily cause a fall in REIT stock prices. There are a number of other facts involved.
So it would appear that interest rate changes might only affect REIT stock prices. One good thing about REITs is that a lot of money made in REITs is from their Distributions. I have two. In one some 40% of my total return is from Distributions and in the other some 55% of my total return is from distributions.
The last thing to mention is that we have gone from historically high interest rates to historically low interest rates. A few years back people were saying that interest rates have a bottom of 0%. They were saying that negative interest rates could not happen. Yet, here we are with negative interest rates. Here is an Market Watch article about negative interest rates. As far as I know this has never happened before.
On my other blog I am today writing about RioCan Real Estate (TSX-REI.UN, OTC-RIOCF) ... 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. 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. Follow me on Twitter.
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
REIT Payout Ratios
A good article on REIT Payout Ratios is this 2011 article from the Globe and Mail by John Heinzl. Basically what this article is saying that if a REIT is not continuing payout more than the AFFO there is generally no problems with the Payout Ratio. This article also talks about the accounting changes done around 2011 which affected how EPS was determined on REITs. Looking at my spreadsheets on REITs, the EPS values increased generally considerably with the new IFRS accounting rules.
There is a more recent article dated 2013 from the Globe and Mail by John Heinzl that suggests that a good payout ratio for REIT is 75% to 95% of the AFFO. I think that this is a reasonable goal for a REIT.
In the second article John Heinzl also talks about some REITs paying more than the AFFO because not all distributions are paid in cash. Sometimes REITs count on Dividend Reinvestment Programs in which shareholders get more shares rather than cash distributions.
On my other blog I am today writing about Allied Properties Real Estate Investment Trust (TSX-AP.UN, OTC-APYRF) ... 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. 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. Follow me on Twitter.
There is a more recent article dated 2013 from the Globe and Mail by John Heinzl that suggests that a good payout ratio for REIT is 75% to 95% of the AFFO. I think that this is a reasonable goal for a REIT.
In the second article John Heinzl also talks about some REITs paying more than the AFFO because not all distributions are paid in cash. Sometimes REITs count on Dividend Reinvestment Programs in which shareholders get more shares rather than cash distributions.
On my other blog I am today writing about Allied Properties Real Estate Investment Trust (TSX-AP.UN, OTC-APYRF) ... 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. 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. Follow me on Twitter.
Monday, March 9, 2015
Canadian REITs
In the first paragraph below, I point to bloggers or sites that list all Canadian REITs or ranking of Canadian REITs. In the second paragraph I point to bloggers or sites that talk about where to hold REITs. Most favour TFSA or RRSP accounts. I follow 11 REITs and Real Estate companies as listed below.
Allied Properties (TSX-AP.UN)
Artis REIT (TSX-AX.UN)
Brookfield Asset Mgt. (TSX-BAM.A)
Calloway Real Estate Inv. Trust (TSX-CWT.UN)
Canadian Real Estate (TSX-REF.UN)
First Capital Realty (TSX-FCR)
FirstService Corp (TSX-FSV)
Granite Real Estate (TSX-GRT.UN)
H & R Real Estate Inv. Trust (TSX-HR.UN)
Melcor Developments Inc. (TSX-MRD)
RIOCAN REIT (TSX-REI.UN)
The blogger Passive Income Earner has a list of all Canadian REITs on his site. Another blogger has Avrex Money has ranked Canadian REITs. This Globe and Mail article by Peter Ashton under Number Cruncher talks about searching for the Outstanding Canadian REITs.
The blogger of Canadian Finance Blog talks about adding REITs to your portfolio. He thinks that it might be best to hold REITs in your TFSA. The Blogger My Own Advisor talks about what sort dividend stock he keeps in each of his accounts and includes REITs.
On my other blog I am today writing about Canadian Real Estate Investment Trust (TSX-REF.UN, OTC-CRXIF) ... 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. 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. Follow me on Twitter.
Allied Properties (TSX-AP.UN)
Artis REIT (TSX-AX.UN)
Brookfield Asset Mgt. (TSX-BAM.A)
Calloway Real Estate Inv. Trust (TSX-CWT.UN)
Canadian Real Estate (TSX-REF.UN)
First Capital Realty (TSX-FCR)
FirstService Corp (TSX-FSV)
Granite Real Estate (TSX-GRT.UN)
H & R Real Estate Inv. Trust (TSX-HR.UN)
Melcor Developments Inc. (TSX-MRD)
RIOCAN REIT (TSX-REI.UN)
The blogger Passive Income Earner has a list of all Canadian REITs on his site. Another blogger has Avrex Money has ranked Canadian REITs. This Globe and Mail article by Peter Ashton under Number Cruncher talks about searching for the Outstanding Canadian REITs.
The blogger of Canadian Finance Blog talks about adding REITs to your portfolio. He thinks that it might be best to hold REITs in your TFSA. The Blogger My Own Advisor talks about what sort dividend stock he keeps in each of his accounts and includes REITs.
On my other blog I am today writing about Canadian Real Estate Investment Trust (TSX-REF.UN, OTC-CRXIF) ... 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. 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. Follow me on Twitter.
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