Looking for the best of the best dividend stocks? The Canadian Dividend Aristocrats list is the perfect place to start. Some of the companies listed offer great returns, just be careful not to focus on the yield only.
As you start, you can see the list of stocks (Excel export) to learn more about their yield and dividend payout ratios. One important consideration is to compare within sector and industry in order to compare apples with apples and oranges with oranges.
To be included in the Canadian Dividend Aristocrats list, a Canadian company must match the following criteria.
- The company’s security is a common stock or income trust listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and a constituent of the S&P Canada BMI.
- The security has increased ordinary cash dividends every year for five years but can maintain the same dividend for a maximum of two consecutive years within that five year period.
- The float-adjusted market capitalization of the security, at the time of the review, must be at least C$ 300 million.
- For index additions, the company must have increased dividend in the first year of the prior five years of review for dividend growth. This rule does not apply for current index constituents.
The Dividend Aristocrats list can be a good list to start researching investments but the 5-year of dividend growth requirement is unfortunately not a guarantee for dividend stability.
Considering, a one cent dividend growth also qualifies any company, it’s important you look a little further to narrow down the list but a good start nonetheless.
Note that you can’t access such dividend data point without a specialized stock screener such as Dividend Snaspshot Screeners.
Performance of Canadian Dividend Aristocrats
Are you looking to get average returns from the dividend aristocrats index or to find a gem in a haystack from the list?
This is where it gets interesting. You can purchase the CDZ dividend ETF tracking the Canadian dividend aristocrats, or you can opt to go with the XDV ETF tracking a broader dividend payer group.
Here is how CDZ does against the indexes and then against some of the popular dividend ETFs.
The distribution yield tend to average around 3% which is decent but if it’s income you need, there are better options.
This Aristocrat ETF is more about getting some distribution and appreciation but the growth over time doesn’t really outperfom the XIU ETF (Canadian TSX60 ETF) in the end.
Canadian Dividend Aristocrats Updates
Below are the 87 securities listed in the index as per the rules outlined above. Before you go and agree or not with the index or the rules, indexes are put together to attempt at categorizing certain stocks and investment strategies such as monthly income investing, dividend investing or dividend growth investing. ETFs and mutual funds then use those to put products together to satisfy investor demand.
Have a look at the stock list below, but be sure to check out the Canadian Dividend Achievers as they need 10+ years of consecutive dividend increases.
Historical Updates
- January 2024: No changes.
- July 2023: No changes.
- April 2023: H, NTR, TOU, WCN and MI.UN added. AQN, KEY, ONEX, GR.UN, TCS and INE removed.
- January 2023: BN added. SMU.UN removed.
- November 2022: No changes.
- August 2022: SRU.UN added.
- April 2022: 9 Additions (ABX, ALS, CF, HDI, JWEL, TCS, WFG, KMP.UN, SGR.UN), 1 removal (BLX)
- January 2022: No changes.
- November 2021: No changes.
- September 2021: 1 removal (CHP.UN)
- March 2021: 9 additions (AEM, BAD, CJT, CP, ECN, FN, QSR, WPM, X) and 2 removal (OR, RNW).
- January 2021: No changes.
- November 2020: No changes.
- September 2020: LB and MTY were removed.
- June 2020: Removal of AD, SU, SES, IPL, and RCH
- April 2020: No removal with the addition of CGO, FSZ, GWO, MFI, POW, and QBR.B.
- January 2020: No addition or removal.
- July 2019: SJR.B and GEI were removed. GS was also removed as it was acquired and 10 more companies were added.
- January 2019: ALA was removed after the dividend reduction and ENF was removed as it was acquired by ENB.
- September 2018: A couple of stocks were removed and one was acquired. CJR.B and CIX were removed and PJC.A was acquired by MRU.
- May 2018: No changes.
- February 2018: The following stocks are added; BEI.UN, EQB, TIH, PBH, RNW, PKI, SES, ONEX, and OTEX while the following 9 stocks were removed; FCR, RCI.B, WJA, SCL, IGM, PSI, CMG, NVU.UN, RUS, and ESI.
- January 2018: Agrium is removed as the companies merged with Potash to form Nutrien.
- September 2017: HCG and AIM were removed since they reduced their dividends.
- May 2017: 1 company was removed. Nevsun Resources (TSE:NSU) was removed from the list.
- February 2017: 14 companies were added while 1 was removed. Newcomers are: ALA, AP.UN, ARE, BAM.A, BEI.UN, BMO, CAR.UN, FCR, ITP, L, NWC, PPL, STN, and WN. BDT was the company removed from the aristocrat index in the last update.
Up-to-Date Canadian Dividend Aristocrat Constituents
Dividend Artistocrats In My Portfolio
My portfolio has many Canadian Dividend Aristocrats, check them out below. I consider them the best. Also note that many of these aristocrats are in my taxable account and I must pay income tax.
There is a way to earn up to $50K in dividend tax free though if you are strategic.
