Canada’s Top Performing Companies 2013
I was happy to see the latest edition of Canadian Business in my mailbox this week.
Every year, the magazine issues the Investor 500 edition, a comprehensive look at Canada’s 500 largest publicly traded companies.
In this edition I also found an article listing the top 15 Canadian companies by profit and total revenue:
Although these stocks offer a range of yields, the top-15 by profit would likely be a good starting point for your dividend stock portfolio research. Some of these Canadian companies have been paying dividends for over 100 years and others, regular and increasing dividends for decades.
Let’s a have quick look at some of the data that I am aware of:
- Royal Bank (RY) – paid dividends since 1870.
- TD (TD) – paid dividends since 1857.
- Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) – paid dividends since 1832.
- Bank of Montreal (BMO) – paid dividends since 1829.
- Imperial Oil (IMO) – paid dividends for over 100 years and has increased annual dividend for 18 consecutive years.
- CIBC (CM) – paid dividends since 1868.
- Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ) – paid regular quarterly dividend since 2001.
- Canadian National Railway (CNR) – paid regular quarterly dividends since 1996.
- Bell Canada (BCE) – paid regular quarterly dividends since 1983.
- Great-West Lifeco (GWO) – paid regular quarterly dividends since 1990.
Can you imagine the income you might have received from such companies if you had bought and stay invested in such companies over the years – instead of jumping in and out of the market?
Can you imagine the capital appreciation you would have gained as well?
Canada’s Top Performing Companies 2013 Summary
Investors, if you’re struggling over what Canadian dividend paying stocks to purchase for your portfolio, while pouring over company metrics still makes sense and buyer must always beware, consider owning the Canadian companies at the top of our equity market index that make a bunch of money and have been doing so for a very, very long time.
What do you think of these companies? Do you think past performance could be any forecast of future results for these dividend paying stocks?
Note: At the time of this post, I own most of the top-15 companies by profit above although not all of them.
Mark
Oh ya, I’m with Daisy, how many of these do you own and did you sell off and and wish you would have kept?
@Canadian Budget Binder
Buy and hold, and even when they drop in price by 30%, buy more some. You can’t do this with penny stocks but for established companies, multi-billion dollar companies that have paid dividends for generations, absolutely.
Thanks for sharing this list Mark. If companies have been paying well year after year then I probably would say it’s a good bet you would make some money. Like The Dividend Guy mentions, can they sustain tthis in the current economy, only time will tell. Cheers Mate!
No sweat! Recall some of these companies continued to pay dividends during “The Great Recession”.
Thanks for the list; very useful.
Now, to make the analysis complete, so we can select the companied to invest in, it would be good to see the dividend yields and the stock prices, over a period of, say, 10-15 years. As much as dividends are important, so is growing the market value of the pertfolio via stock price appreciation.
I suppose one could do the task of compiling this information, but it would be nice to receive it in a nice package, done by soemone else. 😉
Fair points Helen. Always good to do some back-testing if you will.
As for capital appreciation, there has definitely been some. For example, in the last 5-years:
CNR up over 100%
BCE up over 60%
BMO up over 75%
While some are down, many are up.
Lots of the most profitable companies have a pattern. For instance, I’m seeing repeat banks, insurance firms, and “energy” companies. How many of these do you own?
I own about 8 of 15 of the top-profit companies.
I own a few in the right-hand table as well, the top-15 revenue. I also own a few not on either list but every I own that isn’t indexed, pays a dividend and has done so even during “The Great Recession”.
I think companies that have paid dividend for more than a century will continue to pay and rise their dividend until their business model collapse. The dividend distribution is part of their business model.
At that point, the question is simple: “can the company business model survive the current economy?”. For banks, I think so ;-). For a techno stocks, it’s harder to answer!
Nice find. I like that I own 7 of the 15 most profitable companies. You could probably make an equal weight purchase of those companies (minus the repeats on both lists) and do very well in the long run.
Hey man,
We’re about the same…I own a few as well. An equal weight purchases of those companies and you’re right, that could be a powerful portfolio for decades. I’m banking on it. 🙂 Thanks for your comment.