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 231 - This week's 10 big gainers, high dividend stocks scored - CAL-MAINE FOODS - HESS MIDSTREAM - IGM FINANCIAL
Welcome to Safe Dividend Investing's Podcast 231
While identifying, recording, analyzing and scoring this week's 10 US and Canadian financially strong, high dividend stocks for the podcast, I found the following interesting:
The most expensive stock was < Cal-Maine Foods>at < $105.94>and <Brookfield Renewable > was the least expensive at <$27.20>
The stock with the highest dividend yield percent was < Millicom International > with a <7.54 % > yield. The lowest was <Enghouse Systems > with a <5.12%> yield
The most buy recommendations by analysts were <9> for<Brookfield Renewable> and the least number was <0> for <Enghouse Systems >.
The highest Book Value was for< Cal-Maine Foods> at <$36.71> and the lowest was for <Hess Midstream > at <$2.43>
The highest number of shares traded were <4 Million> for <Hess Midstream>and the lowest number was <95 Thousand > for <Westshore Terminals >.
The highest operating margin was for <Hess Midstream > at<61.40%>and the lowest was for <Gibson Energy > at<3.13 %>
The lowest Price-to-Earnings ratio of <5.2x> was for < Cal-Maine Foods >and the highest was<40.76x.> for <Clearway Energy >
The stock with the highest IDM score was <Cal-Maine Foods > with a <68 >. The Lowest score of < 45 > was for <Enghouse System >
The objective of my podcasts and my six investment books is to show investors that they can easily become successful self-directed investors who will not only realize a safe dividend income of 6 to 8 percent but show substantial gains in the value of their portfolio. Through self-directed investing, thousands of dollars in investment fees, commissions and charges can be saved while also realizing a sense of security in knowing exactly what you are invested in and why you chose to invest in that safe stock.
For more information on self-directed investing go to my website www.informus.ca and also listen to the previous 231 weekly podcasts. The first 160 are devoted to answering questions from investors just like you.
Ian Duncan MacDonald
imacd@informus.ca
New York Telephone 929-800-2397 or Toronto 416-2454-994
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
19 July 2025
Podcast 231
Greetings to listeners all around the world. Welcome to Safe Dividend Investing’s Podcast # 231, on July 19 of 2025. My name is Ian Duncan MacDonald, author of six investment books.
The objective of these weekly podcasts is to assure those who are hesitant about self-directed investing that they too 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 a few strong stocks down to those whose share price will grow while providing you with a generous, reliable dividend income.
I personally use the TD Bank’s free research tools that they supply to self-directed investors to make 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.
(FOR MORE INFORMATION ON HOW THIS APPROACH TO INVESTING CAN GUIDE YOU TO A SAFE, PROFITABLE GROWING PORTFOLIO VISIT my website www.informus.ca)
To illustrate this selection process, I enter the following 6 criteria into the selector software. I immediately reduce the thousands of possible stocks to consider down to 5 outstanding stocks traded on US stock exchanges:
(1) US common shares
(2) a dividend yield exceeding 5% .
(3) the number of shares traded of 275,000 or more.
(4)an operating margin exceeding 2%
(5)a share price exceeding $24.73
(6)a weekly share price gain exceeding 5%.
By changing the criteria selectors in selectors 2 to 6 I could gradually increase the number of stocks I want to consider for my portfolio without flooding myself with work.
THIS WEEK’S 5 US STOCKS THAT QUALIFIED- WITH THEIR CALCULATED SCORES & STOCK SYMBOLS WERE:
(1) Hess Midstream ( Score 64 ) HESM
(2) Millicom International Cellular SA ( Score 62) TIGO
(3) Cal-Maine Foods Inc (Score 68 ) CALM
(4) Brookfield Renewabel Partners (Score 52 ) BEP
(5) Clearway Energy Inc (Score 54 ) CWEN
The next step in confirming these 5 suitable stocks really are suitable for my portfolio. Igo to a page in in a stock research database that provides the following 9 details for each stock. This is usually a free service provided to self-directed investors. That 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 determine if a stock is strong enough to contribute to the growth of my wealth while providing a reliable high dividend income.
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 exceptions where the highest score may not be your best choice for your portfolio. That is why it is always recommended that you check historic share prices and dividend payouts going 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 should 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 can change from a positive to a negative one, if for example this simple Google search disclosed that stock was involved in a securities fraud class action law suit or some other potentially serious problem.
Also, you want to invest in stocks that are surrounded by a protective moat of long-established loyal customers. I shy away from industries where the price of what they sell is their only advantage and there is no customer loyalty.
Safety is also increased when you invest equally in a portfolio of 20 stocks. Thus only 5% of what you have invested in each stock is ever at risk. If a few of your carefully chosen 20 stocks should ever temporarily encounter share price and dividend shrinkage the impact upon your total portfolio of 20 stocks would be negligible because your total portfolio will be generating between 6% and 8% in annual dividend income while generating an annual capital gain of 9% or more. Furthermore, it takes time to acquire stocks and to monitor them. Twenty stocks are manageable. Too many stocks can create too much work and turn investing into an unwelcome chore.
Turning to the smaller Canadian stock market you find it is different from the US stock market and requires a change in the selection filters
CANADIAN STOCK DATA SELCTORS USED:
(1) Canadian common shares.
(2)a dividend yield exceeding 5%.
(3)the number of shares traded of 116 ,000 or more.
(4) an operating margin exceeding 2%.
(5)a share price exceeding $21.84.
(6)weekly share price gain exceeding 2%
The 5 CANADIAN STOCKS THAT QUALIFIED & THEIR SCORES:
(6) South Bow Corporation ( Score 47) SOBO
(7) IGM Financial Inc ( Score 60) IGM
(8) Westshore Terminals Investment Corporation (Score 55) WTE
(9) Gibson Energy Inc (Score 49) GEI
(10) Enghouse Systems Ltd (Score 45) ENGH
IN THE TRANSCRIPT OF THIS PODCAST YOU WILL FIND A CHART SHOWS HOW SCORES WERE CALCULATED FOR EACH OF THIS WEEK’S 10 STOCKS
CHART SHOWING HOW SCORES WERE CALCULATED K= thousands, M = millions)
STOCK SYMBOL <PRICE><PRICE 4YR AGO> <BOOK VALUE><BUYS><STRONG BUYS><DIVIDEND%><OPERATNG MARGIN><TRADE VOLUME>PRICE/EARNINGS><SCORE>
USA
(1) HESM 41.00 23.44 2.43 2 0 6.79 61.40 4M 16.1x 64
(2) TIGO 39.95 41.11 21.08 2 0 7.51 23.84 1M 19.1x 62
(3) CALM 105.94 35.08 36.71 0 0 6.39 32.34 1M 5.2x 68
(4) BEP 27.20 38.51 20.39 9 0 5.49 35.08 1M - - 52
(5) CWEN 32.98 28.04 10.21 3 0 5.32 16.71 1M 40.7x 54
CANADA
(6) SOBO 36.88 0 17.21 1 0 7.38 36.25 1M 19.1x 47
(7) IGM 43.80 43.74 32.79 1 0 5.14 31.9 230K 11.1x 60
(8) WTE 28.21 21.93 11.75 1 0 5.32 42.27 95K 15.7x 55
(9) GEI 24.82 22.80 5.96 4 0 6.99 3.13 29K 25.2x 49
(10) ENGH 23.45 56.63 10.76 0 0 5.12 17.62 100K 16.5x 45
HIGHS AND LOWS
While identifying and scoring today’s US and Canadian stocks this week I identified, I found the following interesting
The most expensive stock was < Cal-Maine Foods>at < $105.94>and <Brookfield Renewable > was the least expensive at <$27.20>
The stock with the highest dividend yield percent was < Millicom International > with a <7.54 % > yield. The lowest was <Enghouse Systems > with a <5.12%> yield
The most buy recommendations by analysts were <9> for<Brookfield Renewable> and the least number was <0> for <Enghouse Systems >.
There were no strong buy recommendations.
The highest Book Value was for< Cal-Maine Foods> at <$36.71> and the lowest was for <Hess Midstream > at <$2.43>
The highest number of shares traded were <4 Million> for <Hess Midstream>and the lowest number was <95 Thousand > for <Westshore Terminals >.
The highest operating margin was for <Hess Midstream > at<61.40%>and the lowest was for <Gibson Energy > at<3.13 %>
The lowest Price-to-Earnings ratio of <5.2x> was for < Cal-Maine Foods >and the highest was<40.76x.> for <Clearway Energy >
The stock with the highest IDM score was <Cal-Maine Foods > with a <68 >. The Lowest score of < 45 > was for <Enghouse System >
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.
It is not unusual to initially see the price of the strong stock you have carefully chosen decline. Be patient.
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. or Telephone New York 929-800-2397 or Toronto 416-245-4994