April 2021 Dividend Report: 56 new shares dripped!

Dividend Income & Portfolio Update

Personal Highlights – April 2021

Last month I wrote about how the weather was getting nicer and restrictions were being lifted. Unfortunately that didn’t last too long – and we’ve gone back into a lockdown. We are back in code red which means no visitors, not even in your yard. The good news is, the vaccine rollout has finally started quickening it’s pace and I am hopeful I’ll be in the next eligible group.
My little guy turned 4 this month. Unfortunately for him, he has now had 50% of his birthdays in quarantine. We made the best of it though, he got Mcdonalds for supper, his aunt made an awesome Dinosaur cake and we had grandparents drop off presents.
Attended my 2nd Winnipeg Whisky Club event, which featured 6 different single malt single cask expressions. The Old Pulteney 2004 single cask was by far my favourite. I didn’t enjoy this tasting as much as the last overall, but the Old Pulteney was definitely my favourite so far.
We already had all our patio furniture out in the backyard, and I’ve been barbecuing a lot, but lately the kids have really enjoyed playing in the front yard, so I picked up this 3 piece patio set for our front stoop so we can enjoy our coffee (or cocktail) on the stoop while the kids play. I’ve also enjoyed sitting out there during the day with the laptop and working for an hour or so when it’s nice out(and th heat in the south facing backyard is too much to bear).
Prior to the lockdown restrictions – I visited my brothers place for an outdoor bonfire and he made me a delicious old fashioned with Birch Syrup that he made from one of the Birch trees on his farm. It was delicious.

Financial Highlights for April:

It’s been a while, but actually made some stock purchases in April. I picked up an additional 827 shares of Greenlane Renewables in my TFSA when it dipped to $1.58/share. This brings my total position to 3719 shares.
Started a new position in Fronsac Reit. We picked up 376 shares. This will allow us to drip an additional share each month and adds $113.00 to our forward dividend income.
Still sitting on about 30% cash in my RRSP (from the sale of my XAW shares). Waiting another couple months to see what happens before buying back in.
Received my first ever dividend from Couche Tard. Always nice when you get your first payment from a new holding.
Got dividends from 12 companies and 1 fund. Dripped an additional 56 shares/units.
Portfolio (including cash position) reached another all time high! I am getting real close to a new portfolio milestone. I am less than $12,000 away from my stock portfolio reaching half a million dollars!

Passive Income Update For April 2021.

TFSA’S:

Diversified Royalty Income: $24.55 (dripped 10 shares)

Artis Reit: $41.30 (dripped 3 shares)

Plaza Reit: $31.78 (dripped 7 shares)

European Residential Reit: $7.97 (dripped 1 share)

Interrent Reit: $4.50

Telus: $57.26 (dripped 2 shares)

Algonquin Power: $191.49 (dripped 9 new shares)

Nexus Reit: 14.67 (dripped 1 share)

TFSA’s Total: $373.52

RRSP:

Canadian Equity Income Distribution: $366.70 (dripped 11 shares)

Transcontinental: $204.08 (dripped 9 new shares)

Alimentation Couche-Tard: $52.50 (dripped 1 new share)

GoEasy Financial: $181.50

Newflyer: $59.50 (dripped 2 new shares)

RRSP Total: $864.28

Total Passive Income April 2021: $1237.80

Portfolio Update:

My portfolio (including cash position) increased another 2.68% in April to a new record high: $488,296.09. I am still sitting on about 30% cash in my RRSP – which I plan on being patient with and waiting to see what happens over the coming months.

After the first quarter of 2021 I have received $4713.43 in dividend income compared to $4023.68 in 2020!

Hope you had a great April.

Cheers!

10 canadian dividend all star stocks to add to your watchlist

Once or twice a year I like to update my watchlist for stocks to keep an eye on in the coming months. My favorite way of doing this is by running a custom stock screener, using multiple metrics to slowly narrow the list down. Since there are so many stocks to go through – I like to start by first narrowing it down to some quality names, who have a history of paying dividends , and luckily there is a great tool for this- The Canadian Dividend All Star List. This list is updated each month and is a great starting point for anyone looking for quality dividend stocks in Canada.

This list includes just about every metric you can think of. Personally I use about 25-30 different metrics when I run my custom screen, and for each I consider a value that meets my risk profile and investment goal. I then highlight any stocks in green that meet/exceed this target and any in red which do not. For a very basic example, let’s say the metric I am evaluating is payout ratio. In this example, let’s assume I think a payout ratio of 40% or less is great, and anything over 70% concerns me. In this scenario I would highlight all stocks with a payout ratio under 40% in green(and score them +1), and all stocks over 70% in red(score of -1). Anything in between would be left as is(no score). If you want, you can also assign different weights to different metrics. For example, perhaps “value” is most important to you – so you may weight P/E higher than dividend growth rate. I do this for each metric, and when I am done I tally up the scores. What I like about this method is that although it’s not really scientific in it’s approach, it allows each individual investor choose stocks that fit THEIR own personal comfort level. I would also like to note that I use this ONLY as a starting point. Once I end up with my top scoring stocks – I never dive right in and purchase them. This is just a starting point. Once I’ve narrowed it down to my top 10, I then go to the company website to learn more about the company, read the investor presentations, financial statements and analyst comments to dig in further.

Blind Stock Screen

As regular readers may know, I am a pretty big fan of whisky (specifically bourbon), and sometimes I like to do blind taste tests. I prefer to do tastings blind, because I want to know which bourbons truly provide the best value, and I want to ensure I am not tricking myself into thinking I like it because it’s expensive, or because a bunch of people say how great it is. When I am looking for value in stocks, I take the same approach. Here is a pic from the last blind tasting we did (back when we could still see people in person):

Prior to starting the screen I always HIDE the company name & stock symbol. I do this because I don’t want any bias to come into play, and honestly, I like being surprised at the end to see if certain companies I assume fit my investing profile actually do or not. In the past, some of my top performing stocks have come from this method, including: Goeasy, Manulife & Transcontinental.

Stock Screener Metrics Used

I would again like to reiterate that each investor will probably have different metrics they use, since a lot of us have different goals. Personally, I consider myself a value investor who is interested in long term dividend paying stocks who pay a growing dividend. Here are just a few of the metrics I used in my stock screener (in no particular order) :

Dividend Growth Rate (I use the 1,5 & 10 year growth rates)
Dividend Growth Streak (# of years)
Payout ratio (Trailing 12 month & Estimated next 12 month)
Trailing 12 month Earnings Per Share & Estimated EPS
Payout Ratio
Price/Earning Ratio
Earnings Per Share Growth (1 year, 3 year, 5 year & 10 year)
Sales Per Share Growth
Difference between analyst price target & current share price (I don’t put too much stock into this one)

Canadian Dividend All Stars To Watch

So which companies scored best on my most recent screen? There are a few names I was not surprised to see, a few that I was surprised to see, and if I am being completely honest, a couple of names I had never even heard of. By doing this blind screen it can:

Introduce you to new potentially great stocks (to do further research on)
Confirm that some preconceived notions you had about some stocks are correct (or incorrect)
Takes any sort of bias/group think out of your decision making.

Top 10 Canadian Dividend Stocks

Here are the 10 stocks that ranked highest in my blind screen.

Equitable Group Inc (nearly a perfect score)
Enghouse Systems Ltd
Goeasy Ltd
PFB Corp
Empire Company
iA Financial Corporation
CCL Industries
Canadian Tire Corp Ltd
Intact Financial
Canadian Pacific Railway

The top 10 includes a few companies I either already own, or have been looking to purchase(Equitable Group, Go Easy, Empire, CCL, etc), as well as one company I had never heard of (PFB Corp). $EQB scored the highest of all stocks by quite a bit, though I believe almost every company on this list would be a great long term hold. I’ve now officially added PFB to my watchlist and plan to dig a little deeper into it.

I would also like to include a couple that fell just outside the top 10 that I will also be adding to my watchlist. They are:

Hardwoods Distribution Inc
Alimentation Couche Tard
Dollarama Inc
Brookfield Asset Management
Manulife
TD Bank

Having recently purchased Couche Tard I am happy to see it ranked highly in my screen. I’d also like to point out that although I don’t know much about Hardwoods Distribution Inc, every single time I have run a screen in the last couple of years it has shown up. I am not sure why I haven’t bought it yet (I wish I did, as it has gone up about 90% since my last screen).

I’m glad I’ve been able to add a bunch of names to my watchlist, now I just need this damn market to cool down so I can dive in and make some purchases! If you have any questions or metrics that you use when evaluating stocks, please let me know in the comments or reach out on twitter!

Cheers

March recap: dividends, easter & finally some nice weather

Dividend Income & Portfolio Update

Personal Highlights – March 2021

Things here in Winnipeg are starting to open up again. Restaurants, hairdressers, etc are all open for business. Vaccine rollout albeit slow seems to be picking up as well (both my parents now have appointments to get one in the next couple of weeks.
The weather has started heating up (finally). All the snow is gone, the patio furniture is out, and I picked up a firepit and compost bin for the backyard. I’ve begun some yard work, and I’m planning on stepping up our game this year with the look of garden/yard.
We had a fun easter, with some surprise visitors in the backyard, and lots of treats, presents and egg hunts.
Earlier in the month we checked out the “Chickadee Trail” at Birds Hill provincial park, which was awesome. Basically it’s a long hiking trail with thousands of chickadees. You can take some birdseed with you, and they will come eat it right out of your hands. Our daughter was the crazy bird lady, they just swarmed her and kept coming back for more. The little man tried once, but got too scared…
Not sure if it was an error – but a friend posted on facebook that Walmart.ca had area rugs on clearance for $3.49 (regular price $300-900). I tried adding a whackload to my cart – but by the time I got to check out most were already sold – so I only ended up with 3. My friend got 6. I’m still thinking this was an error, and I’ll get an email saying my order couldn’t be processed – but we will see. Check this out:
Not much knew on the whisky/cocktail front. I missed our Winnipeg Whisky Club even this month because our whole house came down with a cold. I did get a new bar fridge for the den – the old one didn’t have a freezer and whenever I was making cocktails I had to go to the kitchen to get ice (first world problems I know), but for the amount of times I make cocktails and entertain people – I figured it was definitely worth it. I also stocked up the new fridge with some summer beers and made a new batch of demerara syrup for cocktails. A couple cocktails I made in March (Paralyzer & Old Fashioned):

Financial Highlights for March:
Got our tax returns back! Will use the proceeds to pay off cabin taxes, purchase a new patio set for the front stoop, and dump the rest into TFSA & savings.
Added to my position in Greenlane Renewables. Picked up an additional 827 shares at $2.00
Still sitting on a bunch of cash in my RRSP (from the sale of my XAW shares). Waiting another couple months to see what happens before buying back in.
Got dividends from 10 companies and 1 fund. Dripped an additional 47 shares/units.
Portfolio (including cash position) reached an all time high!

Passive Income Update For March 2021.

TFSA’S:

Diversified Royalty Income: $24.39 (dripped 10 shares)

Western Forest $20.49 (dripped 12 shares)

Artis Reit: $38.15 (dripped 3 shares)

Plaza Reit: $31.59 (dripped 8 shares)

European Residential Reit: $7.60 (dripped 1 share)

Interrent Reit: $4.50

Canadian Western Bank: $0.29

Manulife: $41.72 (dripped 1 share)

Nexus Reit: 14.61 (dripped 1 share)

Intertape Polymer Group: $54.27

TFSA’s Total: $237.61

RRSP:

Canadian Equity Income Distribution: $365.54 (dripped 11.297 shares)

Total Passive Income March 2021: $603.15

Portfolio Update:

My portfolio (including cash position) increased another 3.89% in March to a new record high: $475,553.39. I am still sitting on about 30% cash – which I plan on being patient with and waiting to see what happens over the coming months. The market and housing markets seem completley unstable – we are seeing a potential third wave of Covid and nothing is making sense, so for now I am okay sitting on the sidelines with some cash to see how things shake out – even if it means I miss out on some potential gains on a portion of my portfolio.

Hope you had a great March.

Cheers!