Podcast 221 - This Week's Outstanding Stocks -BCE -WHIRLPOOL - ENERGY TRANSFER -CANADIAN NATURAL RESOURCES

 THIS WEEK'S 10  BEST HIGH DIVIDEND GROWTH STOCKS

U.S  SELECTORS  (1) common shares (2) dividend yield + 5% (3) # shares traded over 1M (4) operating margins +5% (5) share prices + $25.61 (6) weekly share price gain +5%.QUALIFIERS & SCORES: (1)Antero Midstream Corp (AM) Score 54(2)T. Rowe Price Group Inc (TROW) Score 59 (3) Energy Transfer LP (ET ) Score 62 (4) Franklin Resources Inc (BEN) Score 58 (5)Whirlpool Corp ( WHR) Score 50

CANADIAN  SELECTORS (1) common shares (2) dividend yield + 5% (3) # shares traded over 164K (4) operating margins +5% (5) share prices + $25.69 (6) weekly share price gain +1%. QUALIFIERS & SCORES (1) BCE Inc (BCE) Score 44 (2) South Bow Corp (SOBO) Score 47 (3) Canadian Natural Resources Ltd (CNQ) Score 67 (4) Peyto Exploration & Development Corp (PEY) Score 59 (5) Topaz Energy Corp (TPZ) Score 50.

 SCORE CALCULATIONS

STK = Stock Symbol 1= Price $ 2= 4yr ago Price $  3= $ book value 4= advisor buys # 5= advisor strong buys # 6= div. yield % 7=operating margin % 8 = trade volume #   9 = P/E  ratio        

US                   1        2        3     4     5      6           7          8       9

 | AM    | 18.07 | 9.69 | 4.41 | 0 | 0 | 4.98 | 58.67 | 2M | 21.0
| TROW    |92.74|191.07| 46.40| 0| 0| 5.48|32.96 |1M |10.5
| ET          |17.21|10.11| 10.24 | 10 | 0 | 7.61 | 11.26 |16M | 13.0
| BEN    |20.94 |34.54 |23.89 | 0 | 0 | 6.11 | 5.02 | 5M | 30.3
| WHR      |80.03|246.72 |48.78 | 1 | 0 |8.75 |2.81 |1M |522.9

CANADIAN

| BCE      | 31.61 |59.34 |18.21 | 1 | 0 |12.62 |12.90 |5M |74.8
| SOBO   | 35.27 | 0 | 17.47 | 1 | 0 | 8.0 | 37.47 |740K |16.6
| CNQ     | 42.53 |20.83 |18.77 | 5 | 0 | 5.53 |27.28 |8M |14.9
| PEY       | 19.03 | 5.78 | 13.63 | 5 | 0 | 6.94 | 17.74 |1M |13.4
| 7TPZ     | 24.20 |14.73 |8.58 |6 | 0|5.62 |31.95 |120K | 68.3

Ian Duncan MacDonald
Author, Artist, Commercial Risk Consultant,
President of Informus Inc
2 Vista Humber Drive
Toronto, Ontario
Canada, M9P 3R7
Toronto Telephone - 416-245-4994
New York Telephone - 929-800-2397
imacd@informus.ca

Transcript

Safe Dividend Investing- 10 May 202

Podcast 221

Greetings to listeners all around the world. Welcome to Safe Dividend Investing’s Podcast # 221, on May 10th of 2025.  My name is Ian Duncan MacDonald. 

Before I get into this week’s 5 outstanding US stocks and 5 Canadian stocks, I would like to make 2 comments. The first is for those who are considering investing in stocks for the first time. 

A few days ago, I reviewed 4 Power Point lessons/presentations that I created 8 years ago when I released my first investment book. I think anyone contemplating investing would benefit from reviewing them. They explain what you should invest in and why. The warnings and detailed advice can make your investing easier and safer. If you wish to receive the first lesson send me an e-mail at imacd@infomus.ca.

The second comment is for those interested in Tesla as an investment. In Podcast 100 on January 25 of 2023 I predicted that a Chinese electric car manufacturer would take away Tesla’s world dominance in the electric car market. It has come to pass, and it is interesting to note that now on May 8, of 2025 Tesla’s share price had fallen from its high of $436.23 on December 9 of 2024 down to $288.19 which was an improvement over its on January 2 of 2023 low of $113.06. However, with a current book value of only $22.67, a Price-to-Earnings ratio of 158.6x and no dividends, it is still the kind of speculative stock that I stay far away from. 

 Is the US push for high tariffs just coincidence now that Elon Musk, Tesla’s Chief Executive, has assumed great power in the US government administration? 

That Chinese electric car manufacturer is enjoying great sales success around the world, especially in Europe. However, the US government has been successful in blocking the sale of Chinese electric cars in the US and Canada. The North American car manufacturers nightmare is that the Chinese electric cars could be profitably sold for less than $10,000 in their market.

 Tesla speculators might find it interesting to go back and listen to my Podcasts 100 and 154. Buzzsprout,  Amazon Music and Spotify have all 220 podcasts available free of charge.

 Speculating on financially weak shares with greatly hyped potential is a form of risky gambling. Careful, safe investing in 20 Financially strong companies with long histories of ever rising high dividend payouts and rising share prices minimizes over time the gamble in building a generous, profitable portfolio. 

In the first 190 Podcasts of Safe Dividend Investing, you can find answers to hundreds of investment questions.

 Starting with Podcast 191 the podcast format was changed. I now bring to your attention each week, the 5 U.S.  and the 5 Canadian high dividend stocks whose share prices gained the most this week. This involves using selectors to bring the number of qualifying stocks down to the ten that qualify.

All 10 stocks are scored and the detailed scoring matrix for each stock appears in the written transcript of each podcast.  A stock’s score is calculated out of a possible 100. The highest score I have ever calculated out of the thousands I have scored is an 86. The lowest was 3. The higher the score the stronger the stock. I personally prefer stocks scoring over 50 in my portfolio. However, it is important that a high score also be accompanied by a history of rising share prices and dividend payouts to be exceptionally attractive. 

Note: In Podcast 210 you can see how scores are calculated for each data element and why these scoring elements were chosen. This information can allow you to manually score any stock you encounter.

U.S STOCK SELCTORS USED THIS WEEK

Only common shares are considered in selecting stocks. Preferred shares are ignored. 

A dividend yield percent selector of 5% or more was first applied.

The next selector used was the number of shares traded of the company’s stock exceeding I,000,000 shares. 

Those remaining stocks with operating margins exceeding 5% was applied.

 All remaining stocks with share prices exceeding $25.61 further reduced the numbers.

The final selector eliminated those stocks whose share price had shown a gain of less than 5%. This left us with the following 5 US stock

1. Antero Midstream Corp (AM) Score 54
2. T. Rowe Price Group Inc (TROW) Score 59
3. Energy Transfer LP (ET ) Score 62
4. Franklin Resources Inc (BEN) Score 58
5. Whirlpool Corp ( WHR) Score 50

CANADIAN STOCK SELCTORS USED THIS WEEK

Only common shares are considered in selecting stocks. Preferred shares are ignored. 

A dividend yield selector of 5% was first applied.

The next selector used was the number of traded shares exceeding 164,000.

Stocks with operating margins exceeding 5% was used next.

 Those share prices exceeding  $25.69 further reduced the numbers.

The final selector was stocks whose share price gain in the last week exceeded 1%. 

The following 5 qualifying Canadian stocks were then scored using the IDM stock scoring software:

1. BCE Inc (BCE) Score 44

2. South Bow Corp (SOBO) Score 47

3. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd (CNQ) Score 67

 4. Peyto Exploration & Development Corp (PEY) Score 59

5. Topaz Energy Corp (TPZ) Score 50

HIGHS  AND  LOWS

While scoring these US and Canadian stocks I found the following interesting: 

The most expensive stock was <T. Rowe Price >at <$92.74>and < Energy Transfer > was the least expensive at <$17.21>.

The most buy recommendations by analysts were for <Energy Transfer > with<10> and 3 of the US stocks had no buy recommendations. 

 There were no strong buy recommendations for any of the 10 stocks. 

The highest Book Value was for<Whirlpool  >  at <$48.78> and the lowest was for <Antero Midstream > with < $4.41>

The highest number of shares traded was <16 million > by <Energy Transfer > and  the lowest number was <120 thousand > for <Topaz Energy>.

The highest operating margin was for <Antero Midstream > at<58.67%>  and the lowest was for <Whirlpool Corp > with a  <2.81%>.

The best price-to-earnings ratio of <10.5x > was for<T. Rowe Price > and the highest was<522.9x > for < Whirlpool Corp>.

The stock with the highest IDM score of <67> was  <Canadian Natural Resources >. The Lowest score was a <44> for  <BCE Inc>.

To see all 9 components that made up the scores for each of the 10 companies go to the written transcript that is attached to this podcast. 

Until next week’s podcast this is Ian Duncan MacDonald encouraging you to become a successful self-directed investor.

Any questions and comments can be sent to imacd@informus.ca.

DISPLAY OF US STOCK SCORE CALCULATIONS

S7.16TK = Stock Symbol       1 = Price $   2 = 4yr ago Price $    3= $ book value   4=  advisor buys #   5= advisor strong buys #   6= div. yield %   7=operating margin %    8 = trade volume #   9 = P/E  ratio        

 STOCK          1           2           3     4   5      6             7           8_      _9

 | AM | 18.07 | 9.69 | 4.41 | 0 | 0 | 4.98 | 58.67 | 2M | 21.0x
| TROW | 92.74 | 191.07 | 46.40 | 0 | 0 | 5.48 | 32.96 | 1M | 10.5
| ET | 17.21 | 10.11 | 10.24 | 10 | 0 | 7.61 | 11.26 | 16M | 13.0
| BEN | 20.94 | 34.54 | 23.89 | 0 | 0 | 6.11 | 5.02 | 5M | 30.3
| WHR | 80.03 | 246.72 | 48.78 | 1 | 0 | 8.75 | 2.81 | 1M | 522.9

DISPLAY OF CANADIAN SCORE CALCULATIONS

STK = Stock Symbol     1 = Price $   2= 4yr ago Price $    3= $ book value     4=  advisor buys #   5= advisor strong buys #   6= div. yield %          7=operating margin %      8 = trade volume #   9 = P/E  ratio    

STOCK          1         2           3           4   5        6         7        8             9  

 | BCE | 31.61 | 59.34 | 18.21 | 1 | 0 | 12.62 | 12.90 | 5M | 74.8
| SOBO | 35.27 | 0 | 17.47 | 1 | 0 | 8.04 | 37.47 | 740K | 16.6
| CNQ | 42.53 | 20.83 | 18.77 | 5 | 0 | 5.53 | 27.28 | 8M | 14.9
| PEY | 19.03 | 5.78 | 13.63 | 5 | 0 | 6.94 | 17.74 | 1M | 13.4
| 7TPZ | 24.20 | 14.73 | 8.58 | 6 | 0 | 5.62 | 31.95 | 120K | 68.3

The weekly recording of the outstanding share price gain stocks in both the US and Canada started on November 23rd of 2024. The highest scoring stock recorded since then has been Civitas Resources with a score of 86. The lowest score recorded was a 34 by both Minerosa SA and Fiera Capital . Over these few weeks Enbridge, Endeavour Mining and Telus have each appeared in the weekly podcast several times.

Be sure to always go to the written transcript that accompanies each podcast so you can see the charts showing how the scores for each week’s 10 stocks were calculated. 

 Visit www.informus.ca for information on my investment books and scoring software

FEAR OF LOSING ALL YOUR INVESTMENT MONEY

Many who would like to invest in the stock market do not because they fear losing all the money that they would invest. When asked how I overcame my fear of investing in stocks, I assure them that it is impossible to lose all your money in the stock market if you carefully invest the way I do. This means investing equally in 20 financially strong companies, paying dividends greater than 5% with long histories of ever rising share prices and dividend payouts.

Yes, a few of the share prices of the 20 stocks I have purchased may drop below my purchase price for periods of time while others may double or triple in value at the same time. What is important is the portfolio’s total results not its individual stocks. 

My lack of fear of losing all my money is based on my fifty years in developing commercial risk scoring systems. They predicted which of the 2 million businesses in my database would fail to pay their suppliers. I saw that while 20% may have been slow in paying over 95% of the 2,000,000 companies eventually paid their suppliers in full.  

 The typical supplier had thousands of customers. The chances of a large percentage of their customers not paying them was so small that when it did happen the supplier would write the account off to bad debt and see it as a cost of doing business. They recognized that if they had zero bad debt that their credit granting policies were too tight and they were losing out in making sales. Their extreme caution would ultimately hurt their profits. In the same way you cannot make a profitable income from stocks if you are not invested.

While they were extending perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars in credit to a new customer, these commercial risk managers had very limited data to consult in making their risk decisions.  A stock investor has access to a hundred times more free, easily accessible data to base their risk decisions on.

 All my publications and my stock scoring software are devoted to showing investors where to find and use this free, easily accessed risk information on stocks. It takes only a few minutes to do a basic risk assessment of a stock.

Why does stock risk analysis work?  It works because human beings are creatures of habit. Human beings make the revenue and expense decisions that result in a company making a profit. Dividends are paid out of profits. By looking at the trends of share prices and dividend payouts of a company over many years, you can see the engrained profitable habits of companies.

Unfortunately, the perfect stock does not exist. You must still use some judgment to pick what you believe are the “best” dividend stocks for your portfolio. There is always some compromise between maximizing financial strength and maximizing dividend income. 

The stock scoring software I supply to my book readers is a big help in making a stock value compromise. I believe that the only way anyone could possibly lose all their money on the stock market is because their portfolios were not sufficiently diversified, and they did not spend the few minutes it takes to determine the strength of each stock they added to their portfolio.

BACKGROUND

Investment companies work hard to convince the public that they could never invest profitably without allowing the financial industry to nibble away at a client’s life savings for the rest of their lives. The objective of advisors is to transfer as much money from your pocket to the pocket of the financial institution that employs them. 

I knew 24 years ago that I had to find a better way to invest when I saw a $300,000 loss in the mutual funds an investment advisor had put my life savings into. Since then, I have learned if you are patient and disciplined you can easily grow your portfolio as a self-directed investor without paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees over your lifetime to the investment industry parasites. This is a drain on the money invested to make you money.

My early research quickly showed me that most investors are speculators who see their wealth destroyed when their bet on a stock increasing in price falls below their purchase price and they sell it.  With such speculative churning encouraged by the investment industry, it seemed obvious to me that no one can accurately predict future share prices.

 I became a successful self-directed investor by carefully selecting and buying 20 strong, high dividend stocks through my bank’s online self-directed investment platform. 

Why have I never been disappointed in my income or my capital gain from my 20 stocks? Because my financially strong stocks have paid ever increasing dividend payments out of their company profits. 

While share prices are determined by impulsive speculators making guesses, my dividend payouts are the result of the wise revenue and expense decisions of the experienced managers of the companies whose shares I own.

By looking at free, accessible records that go back for decades, anyone can easily see before they buy a share how that stock’s fluctuating share price has had little or no impact on a stock’s rising dividend payouts.

What do I do when a market crash comes along, and the share price of my stocks, like all stocks, may drop by 50%? I relax and do nothing because I live off my dividends. Those dividends are paid throughout the crash as regularly as they have always been paid through previous stock market crashes. During the crash I pay my monthly bills with my dividend income just as I have always done.

 The idea the investment industry promotes that your portfolio must shrink in value after you retire is meant to scare you into buying more of their investment products such as expensive annuities. The value of my portfolio has grown by several multiples into the 7 figures and is still growing.

 I go for years without selling any of the stocks in my portfolio while realizing a dividend income of 6 to 8 percent each year of the value of my portfolio. Most years the share prices of my 20 strong companies can also increase by about 12%. These rising share prices often cause the company’s managers to proudly increase their dividend payouts to maintain their stock’s historically high dividend yield percentages. That has kept my dividend income well ahead of inflation. You too can also build a strong dividend portfolio just like I did.