The Passive Income Earner

The Passive Income Earner

Dividend Aristocrats - The Canadian TSX Version

Image via WikipediaDividend aristocrats are often used to help guide investment decisions or at least filter down to a set of companies that have a proven record of increasing dividends. The most popular list is the U.S. Dividend Aristocrats which requires companies to be part of the S&P500 and to have increased their dividends every year for the past 25 years. That's no small feat. Imagine the compound growth you get from 25 years of dividend increase.

CANADIAN DIVIDEND ARISTOCRATS REQUIREMENTS

The Canadian dividend aristocrats list doesn't have the same requirements. They are a little softer. In order to become a TSX dividend aristocrat, a company must match the following 3 criteria:

1. It must be listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and be part of the S&P Canada Broad Market Index (BMI).
2. It must have increased dividends every year for the past 5 years.
3. It must be worth at least Canadian 300 million dollars.

As you can see, the requirements for dividend increase is not on par with the U.S dividend aristocrats list but it's still good to see what we have on this side of the 49th parallel.

CANADIAN DIVIDEND ARISTOCRATS LIST

Here is the list of Canadian Dividend Aristocrats as of December 2010. I took the liberty to highlight the companies with a 3% yield or more in green and the list is sorted by market capitalization.

Company Name Ticker Price Yield Market Cap (B$) P/E Canadian Natural Resources CNQ.TO $42.50 0.75% 46.25 17.99 Imperial Oil Ltd IMO.TO $40.84 1.08% 34.62 17.94 Thomson Reuters Corporation TRI.TO $37.69 3.18% 31.37 31.94 Canadian National Railways CNR.TO $67.25 1.61% 31.10 14.58 TransCanada Corp TRP.TO $37.24 4.30% 25.92 19.15 Talisman Energy Inc TLM.TO $22.90 2.10% 23.28 45.06 Enbridge Inc ENB.TO $55.44 3.54% 21.29 21.96 Rogers Communications Inc B RCI.B $34.69 3.69% 19.62 13.45 Cameco Corp CCO.TO $38.54 0.73% 15.17 32.62 TELUS Corp T.TO $46.04 4.52% 14.77 15.31 Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd CP.TO $66.24 1.63% 11.20 16.99 SNC - LAVALIN GROUP INC. SNC.TO $60.25 1.13% 9.11 23.11 Shaw Communications Inc B SJR.B $20.19 4.16% 8.76 16.44 Shoppers Drug Mart Inc SC.TO $39.55 2.23% 8.60 14.57 Saputo Inc SAP.TO $40.71 1.57% 8.40 19.38 Tim Hortons THI.TO $42.40 1.23% 7.33 22.13 Canadian Utilities Ltd A Nvtg CU.TO $54.43 2.79% 6.85 15.82 Fortis Inc FTS.TO $33.79 3.31% 5.87 21.76 Intact Financial Corporation IFC.TO $50.61 2.69% 5.71 14.16

Finning Intl Inc FTT.TO $28.30 1.70% 4.84 35.45 Metro Inc A MRU.A $43.99 1.55% 4.59 12.05 Empire Co Ltd A Nvtg EMP.A $54.33 1.47% 3.69 10.44 Atco Ltd I Nvtg ACO.X $60.94 1.71% 3.54 12.32 Keyera Facilities Income Fund KEY.UN $36.38 1.65% 2.51 17.96 ShawCor Ltd A SCL.A $33.60 0.95% 2.37 28.40 Toromont Industries Ltd TIH.TO $30.94 2.07% 2.38 23.55 Ensign Energy Services ESI.TO $15.34 2.35% 2.35 22.90 Canadian Real Estate Inv Trst REF.UN $31.71 4.54% 2.11 22.40 Cogeco Cable Inc CCA.TO $41.95 1.62% 2.04 12.99 Corus Entertainment Inc B Nvtg CJR.B $23.49 3.07% 1.91 15.11 Home Capital Group Inc HCG.TO $51.89 1.39% 1.80 10.55 AGF Management Ltd B Nvtg AGF.B $19.17 5.43% 1.70 13.21 Transcontinental A Subvtg TCL.A $16.55 2.66% 1.34 9.62 Pason Systems Inc PSI.TO $13.87 2.45% 1.13 37.96 North West Company Inc. NWF.TO $21.70 6.27% 1.05 13.21 CCL Industries Inc B CCL.B $31.20 2.18% 1.04 18.34 Cogeco Inc CGO.TO $38.49 1.25% 0.65 11.49 Enbridge Income Fund Holdings ENF.TO $17.65 6.53% 0.61 49.03

I don't know what expectations I had from the list, but this is not the list I expected. I know nothing of nearly half of the companies on the list. The banks are missing in action considering they had a dividend freeze for the past couple of years but a few telecommunication companies are present.

ADDITION TO THE CANADIAN DIVIDEND ARISTOCRATS LIST

• Bird Construction Income Fund (BDT.UN) - It recently converted to a corporation.
• Enbridge Income Fund (ENF.UN)
• North West Company Fund (NWF.UN)
• Rogers Communications Inc. (RCI.B)
• Tim Hortons Inc. (THI)

REMOVAL FROM THE CANADIAN DIVIDEND ARISTOCRATS LIST

• AltaGas Ltd. (ALA)
• Allied Properties REIT (AP.UN)
• Bell Aliant Regional Communications Income Fund (BA.UN)
• Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS)
• CML Healthcare Income Fund (CLC.UN)
• Canadian Tire Corporation (CTC.A)
• Cominar REIT (CUF.UN)
• Canadian Western Bank (CWB)
• Davis & Henderson Income Fund (DHF.UN)
• EnCana Corporation (ECA)
• Great-West Lifeco Inc. (GWO)
• Industrial Alliance Insurance and Financial Services Inc. (IAG)
• IGM Financial Inc. (IGM)
• Just Energy Income Fund (JE.UN)
• Methanex Corporation (MX)
• Parkland Income Fund (PKI.UN)
• Power Corporation of Canada (POW)
• Power Financial Corporation (PWF)
• RioCan REIT (REI.UN)
• Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Inc. (RBA)
• Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD)
• Uni-Select Inc. (UNS)

FINAL THOUGHTS

Some really good companies were removed from the list. There are a few banks, insurance companies and some energy companies that make up for a large portion of the TSX that were drop due to their inability to increase their dividends in the past year. For some, it's simply a temporary set back. For others, the road back to be a dividend aristocrat may be longer.

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