One of the first and most essential lessons you learn as you begin to invest is the importance of diversification. In addition to finding the best growth stocks in Canada, it’s also important to find lower-risk and more reliable stocks, like the best dividend stocks on the TSX.
Selecting high-quality growth stocks is significant because these companies have the potential to boost your portfolio’s value rapidly. However, because growth companies constantly face different environments and are typically more exposed to economic slowdowns, finding the best dividend stocks in Canada becomes even more important.
When it comes to high-quality dividend stocks, many of these companies have extremely defensive businesses and dominant positions in their industry, making these stocks that you could potentially buy and hold for decades.
Therefore, since you always want to ensure the investments you make are the best when picking the dividend stocks for your portfolio, these companies must have highly defensive and reliable businesses.
As we have seen throughout the last year, a high-quality dividend stock will not just help protect your capital through economic and market downturns; it can continue to earn you significant returns through dividend payments.
With that in mind, if you’re looking to boost your passive income in 2024 and want to find some of the best dividend stocks in Canada, here are two top companies to buy now and potentially hold for years or even decades to come.
One of the best and oldest dividend-growth stocks in Canada
Many investors know that some of the best and most reliable stocks you can buy for your portfolio are in the utility sector. Utility stocks are some of the most defensive businesses you can invest in since they provide essential services, are regulated by governments and are consistently investing in expanding their operations.
In fact, many of the longest-standing stocks on the Canadian Dividend Aristocrats list are utility stocks. That’s why one of the very best dividend stocks you can buy for your portfolio is Fortis (TSX:FTS).
Fortis is a massive $26 billion utility stock with assets located in 10 different jurisdictions across North America, helping to diversify its operations significantly. In addition, the stock offers electricity and gas services to roughly 3.4 million residential and commercial customers.
Fortis’s diversification, its highly defensive operations, and its long track record of consistent growth have made it one of the most popular utility stocks in Canada and one of the best dividend stocks on the market.
In fact, even as interest rates have been rising rapidly and significantly while the economy has been slowing down and the market has been selling off, Fortis is still only trading 12% off its 52-week high.
This just goes to show how well it can protect investors’ capital when the market and economy are facing increasing headwinds. Plus, in addition to its resiliency, Fortis is also one of the most impressive dividend-growth stocks in Canada.
In fact, while it offers a yield of 4.35%, it also offers consistent increases to those payouts with a current dividend-growth streak that’s lasted an unbelievable 50 straight years.
A top telecom stock to buy now
In addition to Fortis, another high-quality stock with defensive operations and an attractive dividend yield is BCE (TSX:BCE).
Telecommunications have been a defensive industry for years, but as technology continues to improve and we continue to rely more and more on the internet, stocks like BCE will continue to see their operations become increasingly resilient.
Plus, BCE, much like Fortis, owns plenty of long-life assets. Therefore, it’s constantly earning billions in cash flow, which not only funds the dividend but also allows BCE to consistently increase its payouts.
The stock may not have the same lengthy dividend-growth streak Fortis has, but at 14 years, that’s still an impressive streak of consistently increasing the cash you’re returning to investors.
Plus, now is the perfect time to look at adding BCE to your portfolio, considering it’s trading at the bottom of its 52-week range and more than 20% below its 52-week high.
If you’re looking for some of the best dividend stocks in Canada to buy now, BCE, with its impressive 7.5% yield, is certainly one you’ll want to consider.
