Canadian Dividend All-Stars

As we head into November, quarterly earnings reports from Canadian dividend stocks will be flooding in and dividend investors should be on the lookout for annual dividend raise announcements. This week, there are two Canadian Dividend All-Stars on tap to raise dividends.

Of note, all figures are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted.

Recent dividend updates

It was an interesting week. Agnico Eagle (TSE:AEM) and First National Financial (TSE:FN) failed to announce a dividend raise. On the flip side, TFI International (TSE:TFII) and Waste Connections (TSE:WCN) both came through with their annual raises.

Company	EST DGR	EST Increase	Actual DGR	Actual Increase	New Div
TFII	20.69%	N/A	17.39%	$0.04	$0.27
WCN	12.20%	$0.025	12.20%	$0.025	$0.23

Let’s start with First National. While the company did not raise dividends this time around, they did announce a special dividend in the amount of $1.25 per share. This should be welcomed news from shareholders.

Last week I was wondering if the Agnico Eagle and Kirkland Lake Gold (TSE:KL) merger would impact dividend growth. Turns out, I was right as AEM chose to keep the dividend steady. This is nothing to be concerned about in the short term as this happens quite often when big deals are working through the closing process.

For its part, Waste Connections 12% raise came in exactly as expected. The 2.5 cents per share raise extends the company’s dividend growth streak to 12 years.

Finally, TFI International’s raise came in slightly below my estimates of ~20%. Worth noting that the company now pays the dividend in USD, a change from last year. It is why our estimates from last week look a little wonky.

In fact, most data providers have not caught on to this and are still showing TFII’s dividend as being issued in CAD. So, be mindful when you are looking at charts that look like TFII may have cut the dividend – they haven’t. The 17% raise extends TFII’s dividend growth streak to 11 years.

Upcoming dividend raises, cuts or suspensions

Granite REIT (TSX:GRT.UN)

Current Streak: 10 years

Current Yield: 2.99%

Earnings: Wednesday, November 3

What can investors expect:

Granite REIT (TSE:GRT.UN) is a rare dual-listed REIT that is focused on industrial, warehouse, and logistic properties. The company usually announces an increase to its annual distribution along with third quarter results.

Granite had a consistent distribution growth rate of approximately 5%, until the last two years, in which the increases came in around 3%. At times, it has also been complemented with a special dividend.

The company has a targeted payout ratio of 80% of adjusted funds from operations (AFFO). Over the last twelve months, the payout ratio sits at 78% which means that the company is likely to once again announce a raise in the low-to-mid, single digits

EST DGR	EST Increase	New Div
2-4.00%	$0.005-$0.01	$0.255-$0.26

Canadian Tire Corp (TSX:CTC.A)

Current Streak: 10 years

Current Yield: 2.67%

Earnings: Friday, November 5

What can investors expect:  Canadian Tire Corp (TSE:CTC.A) is one the country’s largest and most respected retailers. It has consistently raised dividends with third quarter results which will be released before the bell on Friday.

Canadian Tire’s dividend growth rate has been on a steady decline. Last year, the company raised dividends by only 3.3%, a notable drop from the company’s historical double-digit growth rate.

Speaking of dividend growth, check out two top Canadian dividend growth stocks to buy.

That being said, there was still plenty of uncertainty around the pandemic and it was not surprising to see Canadian Tire take a cautious approach. In fact, it was surprising that they even announced a raise.

While there is more certainty this year, we are seeing considerable supply chain issues that may hit companies like Canadian Tire. Given this, I’m expecting management to take the cautious road again despite the company’s respectable 49% payout ratio.

EST DGR	EST Increase	New Div
4.28%	$0.055	$1.23