Higher Dividend Growth, Higher Returns—The Secret Behind US Dividend Stocks!
MP Market Review - March 4, 2025
Welcome to this week’s MP Market Review – your go-to source for insights and updates on the Canadian dividend growth companies we track on ‘The List’! While we’ve expanded our watchlists to include U.S. companies (The List-USA), our Canadian lineup remains the cornerstone of our coaching approach.
Don’t miss out on exclusive newsletters and premium content that will help you sharpen your investing strategy. Explore it all at magicpants.substack.com.
Your journey to dividend growth mastery starts here – let’s dive in!
Last week, dividend growth was up again, with an average return of +6.6% YTD (income).
Last week, the price of 'The List' was up from the previous week with an average return of +1.49% YTD (capital).
Last week, there were two dividend announcements made by companies on 'The List'.
Last week, there were five earnings reports from companies on 'The List'.
This week, no companies on 'The List' are due to report earnings.
DGI Clipboard
“A true investor buys for the dividend return.” The dividend return is the sum of yield plus growth. If one is not thinking of dividends, they must be speculating/hoping. Hoping that they can profit by selling the stock at a higher price.”
-Steve Hanke
Higher Dividend Growth, Higher Returns—The Secret Behind US Dividend Stocks!
Intro
We haven’t shared an updated version of The List-USA since early January. Meanwhile, the Canadian edition appears weekly in our DGI Scorecard section.
While our investment strategy remains consistent across both countries, our U.S. holdings tend to deliver higher total returns—despite starting with an average yield that's a full percentage point lower.
Can you guess why?
The American dividend growth companies we track typically exhibit higher dividend growth rates than their Canadian counterparts, which drives their stock prices higher. So far this year, that trend has held true—both the average dividend growth and price change for ‘The List-USA’ are running ahead of the Canadian version.
Wrap Up
‘The List-USA’ is our watchlist for tracking and selecting stocks for the Wealth-Builder Model Portfolio (USA).
Next week, I'll update subscribers on its performance since inception in May 2023. So far, its total return is nearly double that of our Canadian model portfolio.
For a more guided approach, when building your DGI portfolio, consider becoming a PAID subscriber to unlock access to DGI Alerts. These alerts notify you whenever we make a trade in our model portfolios, allowing you to invest alongside us with confidence. We do the work, and you stay in control!
DGI Scorecard
The List (2025)
The Magic Pants 2025 list includes 29 Canadian dividend growth stocks. Here are the criteria to be considered a candidate on ‘The List’:
Dividend growth streak: 10 years or more.
Market cap: Minimum one billion dollars.
Diversification: Limit of five companies per sector, preferably two per industry.
Cyclicality: Exclude REITs and pure-play energy companies due to high cyclicality.
Based on these criteria, companies are added or removed from ‘The List’ annually on January 1. Prices and dividends are updated weekly.
The List’ is not a portfolio but a coaching tool that helps us think about ideas and risk manage our model portfolio. We own some but not all the companies on ‘The List’. In other words, we might want to buy these companies when the valuation looks attractive.
Our newsletter provides readers with comprehensive insight into the implementation and advantages of our dividend growth investing strategy. This evidence-based, unbiased approach empowers DIY investors to outperform actively managed dividend funds, passively managed indexes, and dividend ETFs over longer-term horizons.
For those interested in more, please upgrade to a paid subscriber. You'll receive the enhanced weekly newsletter, access to premium content, full privileges on the new Substack website (magicpants.substack.com), and DGI alerts whenever we make stock transactions in our model portfolio.
Performance of 'The List'
Last week, dividend growth was up, with an average return of +6.6% YTD (income).
Last week, the price of 'The List' was up from the previous week with an average YTD return of +1.49% (capital).
Even though prices may fluctuate, the dependable growth in our income does not. Stay the course. You will be happy you did.
Last week's best performers on 'The List' were Stantec Inc. (STN-T), up +13.71%; Loblaw Companies Limited (L-T), up +7.70%; and Dollarama Inc. (DOL-T), up +5.27%.
Magna (MGA-N) was the worst performer last week, down -4.33%.
I’ll review last week’s earnings reports in this week's issue, including more exciting dividend increases. Our income continues to grow, and it is already up 6.6% from last year.
In the news section, a good article on stock picking with a few tidbits of investing wisdom and some media coverage on a couple of stocks we follow.
There’s plenty to cover, so let’s dive in!
