Invested Ladies Revisited in June, 2025

 

I wrote an article entitled Invested Ladies back in April, 2022 and I receive monthly newsletters from Our Life Financial in my inbox I mentioned in that post.

I look forward to reading the latest thoughts from an experienced lady in investing and living in Ontario, Canada. Included is a spreadsheet of stocks with the current data such as current price, yield, dividend and Graham Number I find handy when planning my next buy. Her goal is getting up to $50,000 a year in dividends by the end of 2025 and she mentions she's on target.

On Instagram, We Invest Challenge is updated monthly by searching for Our Life Financial with a $100 monthly funding to show how the portfolio can build over time. It's worthwhile to check it out and see in a snapshot how dividend paying stocks have performed over the years. 

Recently I read an inspiration that reminded me that compound interest is the 8th wonder of the world and a powerful force ... from a quote by Albert Einstein. With patience and keeping calm during market downturns, compounding works over time.

An original stock in that We Invest Challenge, added in 2020 is Power Corporation of Canada, POW.TO. In the May 2025 summary and highlighted in June's newsletter, POW.TO has doubled in price so far since originally bought, along with yearly dividend increases.

POW.TO has a current yield of 4.70% with an ex-dividend date of June 30, 2025. There's a recent dividend increase of 8.89% in March of this year and on my calendar to buy more shares.

In a recent post by Cut the Crap Investing, Dale shows POW.TO listed in his wife's portfolio with a 5% weighting in a recent June article about Canadian Stock Portfolios. Great article to compare portfolios and performance. 

South Bow Corporation, SOBO.TO is another stock on my radar before June 30th to further invest in. A pipeline company running down into the US to supply US refineries. South Bow is also a new addition to Our Life Financial's portfolios. 

I don't expect to see any dividend increases with South Bow for awhile where the yield is currently high at 7.50% after a recent spin off from TC Energy, TRP.TO. South Bow started paying dividends after the spin off in January of this year. 

To date, the S&P/TSX Composite Index has been on a steady increase since the lows of April of this year when tariffs made headlines and still do today. To date, the index climb is good news for the stocks I hold within while some sectors perform better than others. 

Looking ahead, there are interesting articles from Morningstar and the Globe and Mail about ETFs that pay decent distributions plus 5 year growth figures in the teens. 

One mention is XDIV, iShares Core MSCI Canadian Quality Div Index ETF with monthly distributions, yield of 4.1% and a 5 year annual return of 17.5% with a low management fee of 0.11. 

A topic certainly worthy of additional posts and compare to owning individual stocks with dividend growth. The hybrid approach used by many investors today with a mix of stocks and ETFs is also a popular theme.

High Yield Performance in June, 2025

 

It's June and in the last week in May, it was about the Big Bank earnings and the expected loan loss provisions set by the bank authority here in Canada. All banks are above the minimum threshold required while some banks added extra billions.

The US initiated trade war with Canada will bring more layoffs with sectors affected along with companies laying off to restructure to boost earnings. Certainly makes it tougher on people where everything has gotten more expensive since Covid. 

Unfortunately, there's no trade deals involving Canada to date. Perhaps even escalating again with a possible 50% on steel and aluminium coming from the US

In their books. loss provisions are recorded as a hit to their earnings but all are in good shape with The Bank of Nova Scotia, BNS.TO being the laggard this time around. With a 6% yield, the bank increased their dividend by 3.8% on a positive note.

TD Bank, TD.TO is the big story rising above their past US debacle while investors like their moves and a new CEO in charge while the stock has risen above $90 CAD making a run for closer to $100 per share possibly this year. 

I'll be adding to both banks in my portfolio. I usually tend to lean more towards the laggard bank after quarterly earnings which is BNS and undervalued by the Graham Number.

Last year, TD was the down trodden bank working through their US issues and paying a huge fine. Its onwards and the bank has moved on from that while making changes internally.

The sector of interest to me after the Banks is energy and pipelines. Pembina Pipeline, PPL.TO with a favourable 1st quarter report for 2025 has an ex-dividend date of June 16th with a current 5.52% yield. More of my energy related stocks will have ex-dividend dates in the second half of June and I'll be looking at them mid month.

An experienced investor, Gordon Pape recently updated his high yield portfolio in the Globe and Mail which continues to gain near 10% on average since he started it in March of 2012 with an initial amount just shy of $25,000 and today worth $83,340 with many of the stocks I own in the 10 stock portfolio, PPL.TO included.

The stock I sold before the recent dividend cut was BCE.TO ... the telecom in his portfolio. It's wise not to copy a portfolio but do your own research and if questions about a stock keep swirling around in my head about performance and management moves with unfavourable news, I sell it and move the funds into another stock I prefer.

It's not only about dividends but share price growth as well where one of my stocks, Sun Life Financial, SLF.TO (also in Mr Pape's portfolio) gained close to $10 since my last buy in February of this year when the US tariff threats ramped up.

I continue to buy JP Morgan Canada's JEPQ (Nasdaq holdings) and JEPI (S&P 500 related holdings) with their fluctuating monthly distributions from these ETFs. They move in price with what's going on in the US as well and investor sentiment, averaging out around $24+ CAD each at this time.