Safe Dividend Investing
In 2000, I lost $300,000 in mutual funds that an investment advisor had put my lifesavings into.... I lost it because I had entrusted it to an industry that does not educate investors nor encourage them to look closely at what that industry is doing with their money..... I set out to find a better, safer way to invest..... My podcasts relate to what I learned in creating a generous, reliable income and in growing my wealth.... A few of the more important lessons I learned and explore are:.... (1) It is critical that you become a self-directed investor.....(2) If you can not easily measure the risk and potential in an investment, then do not invest in it. This excludes from your portfolio bundled investment devices, like mutual funds, ETFs and Index funds,..... (3) Financially strong companies who have paid “good dividends” for decades will continue to stay strong and continue to pay good dividends because it is both part of their "character" and in their executives selfish interest.....(4) Diversification is critical. Investing equally in the best 20 strong dividend stocks is the ideal.....A portfolio of 20 limits your risk in any one stock to 5% of your wealth..... No matter how strong you think a stock is, do not fall in love with it..... I have lived very well off my steady dividend income for 18 years, through two market crashes and one pandemic. I have watched my portfolio’s capital more than triple from where I started, despite taking out a generous dividend income every year to live on... In charts, for my second investment book,(Safer Better Dividend Investing), I spent months scoring all 628 dividend stocks paying dividends of 6% or greater traded on the TSX, NYSE and the NASDAQ. I discovered dozens of stocks that can provide not only a generous dividend income but outstanding capital growth.....Financial independence is realizable for careful, patient, dividend investors.
Safe Dividend Investing
Podcast 230 - ABOUT MONEY BY STEVE JOBS PLUS 10 HIGH DIVIDEND STOCKS SCORED
Welcome to Podcast 230 on July 12 of 2025t
Using stock trading volumes, dividend yield percentages, the previous week's highest share price gains, operating margin percentages, the 5 highest qualifying US common stocks and 5 Canadian common stocks were selected and then scored.
The 5 US stocks by name and stock symbol were: Civitas Resources (CIVI), Noble Corporation PLC (NE), Kilroy Realty Corporation (KRC), Murphy Oil Corporation (MUR) and Polaris Inc (PII).
The 5 Canadian stocks by name and stock symbol were: South Bow Corporation (SOBO), BCE Inc (BCE), Telus Corporation (T), Northland Power Inc (NPI) and Gibson Energy Inc (GEI)w
THE FOLLOWING DATA WAS USED FOR EACH STOCK 'S SCORE CALCULATIONS. THEIR SCORES AND ACCOMPANYING DATA APPEAR IN THE ATTACHED PODCASTS TRANSCRIPT WHICH ALSO CONTAINS STEVE JOBS FINAL WORDS ON WHAT IS IMPORTANT IN LIFE - IT IS NOT MONEY.
(1) Price $ (2) Price 4yrs ago $ (3) Book Value $ (4) Advisor Buys # (5) Advisor Strong Buys # (6) Dividend. Yield % (7)Operating Margin % (8) Share Volume Traded # (9) Price/Earnings Ratio.
CNADIAN SCORE CALCULATIONS (K=Thousand M =million)
STOCK 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
SOBO | 35.82 | 0 |17.17 |1 | 0| |7.60 | 36.25 | 1M | 186x
BCE | 32.57|62.36 |18.71 |2 |0|5.37 |12.90 |4M | 77.3x
T| 22.56| 27.92| 10.39| 3| 0 | 7.38 |14.69 | 5M| | 28.6x
NPI | 22.85| 43.07| 16.10| 6 | 0 | 5.25 |32.55 |456K |22.9x
GEI |24.08 | 22.91 | 5.96 | 4 | 0 | 7.14 | 3.13| 593K| 24.5x
US SCORE CALCULATIONNES
CIVI | 32.34 | 39.71 | 70.57 | 6 | 0 | 9.34 | 26.79| 1M| 3.7x
NE | 30.15 | 21.59 | 29.26 | 4 | 0 | 6.63 | 20.75 | 1M | 10.0x
KRC| 37.20 | 70.38 | 45.59 | 3 | 0 | 5.81 |28.99| 2M | 22.2x
MUR | 26.44 | 19.99 |35.61 | 2 | 0 | 4.92 | 20.53 | 2M | 10.1x
PII | 49.99 | 127.79 | 22.99 | 1 | 0 | 5.36 | 2.80 | 1M| 70.3x
Ian Duncan MacDonald
Author and 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
Safe Dividend Investing
12 July 2025
Podcast 230
Greetings to listeners all around the world. Welcome to Safe Dividend Investing’s Podcast # 230, on July 12 of 2025. My name is Ian Duncan MacDonald.
The objective of these weekly podcasts is to show those who are nervous about self-directed investing that they can safely build a financially strong portfolio of stocks that will give them a generous high dividend income for the rest of their lives and grow in value by several multiples.
Out of about 400 million companies in the world, there are approximately 12,000 North American public stocks available to purchase. Worldwide there are about 58,000 public companies. Fortunately, free software supplied by many financial institutions allows you to narrow your search for strong stocks down to a few. I personally use TD Bank’s free research tools that they supply to self-directed investors to do my selections, however on occasion I do use a similar free research service available at the Yahoo Finance website. There are many financial institutions supplying similar stock selection tools.
By entering the following 6 criteria into the selector software I can reduce the thousands of possible US stocks down to the most outstanding 5 that I wish to consider for my portfolio this week.
(1) US common shares
(2) a dividend yield exceeding 5%
(3) the number of shares traded of 1,000,000 or more
(4) an operating margin exceeding 2%
(5) a share price exceeding $25.79
(6) a weekly share price gain exceeding 5%.
By changing the criteria in these 5 selectors I can gradually and sequentially increase the number of stocks to be considered for my portfolio of 20 stocks without flooding myself with work.
THIS WEEK’S 5 US STOCKS THAT QUALIFIED - WITH THEIR CALCULATED SCORES & STOCK SYMBOLS
(1) Civitas Resources Inc ( Score 76 ) CIVI
(2) Noble Corporation PLC ( Score 59 ) NE
(3) Kilroy Realty Corporation (Score 69 ) KRC
(4) Murphy Oil Corporation (Score 72 ) MUR
(5) Polaris Inc (Score 47 ) PII
The next step in acquiring suitable stocks is to go to a page in in a stock research database that provides detailed investment information for each stock. This is usually a free service that they provide to self-directed investors. The following data is then entered into my IDM stock scoring software which is supplied free to those who have bought any of my investment books and requested it.
THE 9 DATA items used in calculating a IDM score include:
(1) The Stock’s Current Share Price .
(2) Its Share Price 4 years ago.
(3) Its Book Value.
(4) The number of Advisor Buy Recommendations.
(5 ) The number of Advisor Strong Buy Recommendations.
(6) Its Dividend Yield Percent.
(7) Its Operating Margin Percent.
(8) The Average Daily Share Volume traded over the last 90 days #
(9) Today’s Price-to-Earnings Ratio.
A score helps you determine if a stock is strong enough to be considered for your portfolio.
The IDM scoring software rates stocks between 0 and 100. The highest score I have ever calculated was an 86. The lowest was 3.
I personally avoid adding stocks to my portfolio that score under 50. (Most stocks score under 50). The higher the score, the stronger the stock appears to be, however there can be situations where the highest score may not be your best choice for your portfolio. For example, it is recommended that you always check historic share prices and dividend payouts back, year by year, to 1999. You are looking for a trend over those years in which both the share price and the dividend payout are increasing. It would be unusual to see consecutive increases each year but over those 25 years there would be an upward trend.
It is also recommended that you always do a Google search using the words "legals and complaints” along with the stock’s company name. Your perception of a stock changes, from a positive one to one of concern if your Google search disclosed that stock was involved in a securities fraud class action or some other potentially serious p problem.
Ideally you want to invest in stocks that are surrounded by a protective moat of established loyal customers. You may wish to shy away from industries where the price of what they sell is their only advantage.
While no one can accurately predict future share prices there are many stocks that have consistently rising share prices and high-dividend payouts. Those who score in the fifties can be a safer stock to purchase than those scoring in the sixties and seventies.
Safety is also increased when you invest equally in a portfolio of 20 stocks. It takes time to acquire stocks and to monitor them once purchased. Twenty stocks are manageable. Too many stocks can create too much work and discourage investors. Also, if one or two of your carefully chosen 20 stocks should ever temporarily encounter share price and dividend shrinkage the impact upon the total portfolio of 20 stocks would be negligible when your total portfolio is generating 6% t0 8% in dividend income annually and often generating an annual capital gain of 9% or more.
Shifting to the Canadian market, a slightly different set of filters was applied, this reflects Canada’s smaller trading volumes and listings.
CANADIAN STOCK DATA SELCTORS USED:
(1) Canadian common shares
(2) a dividend yield exceeding 5%.
(3) the number of shares traded of 487,000 or more.
(4)an operating margin exceeding 2%.
(5) a share price exceeding $19.376.
(6) weekly share price gain exceeding 2%.
The 5 CANADIAN STOCKS THAT QUALIFIED & THEIR SCORES:
(1)South Bow Corporation ( Score 49) SOBO
(2) BCE Inc ( Score 51) BCE
(3) Telus Corporation (Score 52) T
(4) Northland Power Inc (Score 55) NPI
(5) Gibson Energy Inc (Score 51) GEI
*** GO TO THIS PODCAST’S LANDING PAGE FOR A CHART SHOWING ALL THE STOCK DATA THAT RESULTED IN THE SCORES FOR ALL 10 COMPANIES***
HIGHS AND LOWS
While identifying and scoring today’s US and Canadian stocks identified, I found the following interesting:
The most expensive stock was <POLARIS >at < $49.99>and <TELUS > was the least expensive at <$22.56>
The stock with the highest dividend yield percent was < CIVITAS > with a 9.34 % yield. The lowest was <MURPHY OIL > with a <4.92%> yield
The most buy recommendations by analysts were <6> for<CIVITAS> and the least number was <1> for both <POLARIS INC & SOUTH BOW CORP >.
Theere were NO strong buy recommendations.
The highest Book Value was for<CIVITAS > at <$70.51>and the lowest was for <GIBSON ENERGY > at <$5.95>.
The highest number of shares traded at <5,000,000> was for <TELUS>and the lowest number was <456,000 > for <NORTHLAND POWER >.
The highest operating margin was for <SOUTH BOW CORP > at<36.25%>and the lowest was for <POLARIS > at <2.80 %>
The lowest Price-to-Earnings ratio of <3.7x> was for <CIVITAS >and the highest was<77.3x.> for <BCE >
The stock with the highest IDM score was < CIVITAS > with a <76 >. The Lowest score of < 47 > was for <POLARIS >
The perfect stock does not exist. You choose the “best” 20 stocks you can find always with the intention that you will hold them for decades. Choice is always a job of using your best judgment in comparing stocks for your portfolio. It is not unusual to initially see the price of the strong stock you have carefully chosen decline. Be patient.
I was asked if when I see stocks like Broadcom and Nvidia whose share prices are shooting up like rocket I I find it difficult to stay on the sidelines and not invest in them.
The following was my response:
I have scored the magnificent 7 and analyzed them on various occasions. Their scores are mediocre, and their management don't see sharing profits with shareholder-owners as important. These are stocks meant to appeal to those who get a thrill out of gambling that they know how to accurately predict when a stock has reached it highest share price. They can't accurately predict the future.
To make money speculating, you must sell the "magnificent" stock to generate cash to put food on the table. It then becomes a matter of the price you paid for the stock and the price when you sell it
Since, I only purchase financially strong stocks paying high dividends that I can live on with the intention of never selling these income producers, this makes share prices almost irrelevant. Except I have observed that as share prices go up my strong companies tend to increase their dividend payouts to maintain their high dividend yield percentage.
While share prices of stocks may go up and down, I have observed that my high dividend income rarely goes down. I live off dividend income, not share prices.
I have reached a point in life where I have far more income than I need to live well and a cash reserve that I could live off for several years if I had to. There are too many other things I am interested in than just making more money that would not change my life significantly.
I came across the following written by billionaire Steve Jobs just before he died of cancer at the age of 56 which I thought summed it all up:
"I reached the pinnacle of success in the business world. In others’ eyes my life is an epitome of success.
However, aside from work, I have little joy. In the end, wealth is only a fact of life that I am accustomed to.
At this moment, lying on the sick bed and recalling my whole life, I realize that all the recognition and
wealth that I took so much pride in, have paled and become meaningless in the face of impending death.
You can employ someone to drive the car for you, make money for you but you cannot have someone to bear the sickness for you.
Material things when lost can be found. But there is one thing that can never be found when it is lost – "Life".
When a person goes into the operating room, he will realize that there is one book that he has yet to finish reading – "Book of Healthy Life".
Whichever stage in life we are at right now, with time, we will face the day when the curtain comes down.
Treasure Love for your family, love for your spouse, love for your friends...
Treat yourself well. Cherish others.
As we grow older, and hence wiser, we slowly realize that wearing a $300 or $30 watch - they both tell the same time...
Whether we carry a $300 or $30 wallet/handbag - the amount of money inside is the same;
Whether we drive a $150,000 car or a $30,000 car, the road and distance is the same, and we get to the same destination.
Whether we drink a bottle of $300 or $10 wine - the hangover is the same;
Whether the house we live in is 300 or 3000 sq ft - loneliness is the same.
You will realize, your true inner happiness does not come from the material things of this world.
Whether you fly first or economy class, if the plane goes down - you go down with it...
Therefore. I hope you realize, when you have mates, buddies and old friends, brothers and sisters, who you chat with, laugh with, talk with, have sing songs with, talk about north-south-east-west or heaven and earth, .... That is true happiness!!
Five Undeniable Facts of Life :
1. Don't educate your children to be rich. Educate them to be Happy. So, when they grow up, they will know the value of things not the price.
2. Best awarded words in London ... "Eat your food as your medicines. Otherwise, you have to eat medicines as your food."
3. The One who loves you will never leave you for another because even if there are 100 reasons to give up, he or she will find one reason to hold on.
4. There is a big difference between a human being and being human.
Only a few really understand it.
5. You are loved when you are born. You will be loved when you die. In between, You have to manage!
NOTE: If you just want to Walk Fast, Walk Alone! But if you want to Walk Far, Walk Together!
Six Best Doctors in the World
1. Sunlight
2. Rest
3. Exercise
4. Diet
5. Self Confidence and
6. Friends
Maintain them in all stages of Life and enjoy a healthy life.
Note #1. In the first 190 Podcasts of Safe Dividend Investing, you can find answers to hundreds of investment questions.
Note #2. In Podcast 210 you can see detailed information on how scores are calculated and why these scoring elements were chosen. To have faith in a score I learned long ago that it was important to understand how it is calculated
Until next week’s podcast this is Ian Duncan MacDonald encouraging you to become a successful, wise, self-directed investor.
Any questions and comments can be sent to imacd@informus.ca.