How our Dividend All-Stars performed over the past year

By Norm Rothery on November 5, 2018
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Our portfolio beat its dividend benchmark and there were individual breakout performers. Here’s how they fared over the last year.

Overview Dividend All-Stars Top 100 Dividend Stocks Past Performance Methodology

Over the last year, our Dividend All-Stars struggled against a series of interest rate increases that put a damper on the returns of many Canadian dividend payers.

Our A-graded stocks gained an average of 10% since last year’s update and the larger group of A-and-B-graded stocks gained 6% on average. By way of comparison, the iShares Canadian Select Dividend exchange traded fund (XDV), which holds 30 of the top yielding stocks in Canada, climbed 5% over the same period.

(The returns above assume dividends are reinvested once a year, when the portfolio turns over. The returns below assume dividends are reinvested when they are received.)

Last year’s Dividend All-Stars fared relatively well. There were a slew of big winners and a few stinkers in the bunch.

The top two performers happened to be B-graded stocks. Suncor Energy climbed to the very top with a 29.9% total return. Genworth MI Canada took the second spot with a 28.2% return.

The next three spots were taken by A-graded bank stocks. The Dividend All-Star portfolio benefited from the Bank of Montreal gaining 25.2%, CIBC advancing 22.9%, and TD Bank climbing 22.8%. The three banks rounded out the list of All-Stars with gains north of 20% this year.

The huge returns were offset somewhat by stinkers that fell by 10% or more. CI Financial reduced its dividend, tumbled 20.8%, and took home the year’s dividend dud award. Linamar gave up 15.6% in a poor showing while Arc Resources fell 10.0%.

Overall, 13 of the 22 stocks we identified as All-Stars last year were profitable, nine gained more than 10%, and five beat the 20% mark. On the other hand, five fell by more than 5%. Many profitable portfolios experience a similar sort of return divergence. The big gains come with a few losers.

Here’s the full breakdown of how the Dividend All-Stars performed over the last year.

Rank	Company	Total Return	Previous Year's All-Star Grade
1	Suncor Energy	29.9%	B
2	Genworth MI Canada	28.2%	B
3	Bank of Montreal	25.2%	A
4	CIBC	22.9%	A
5	TD Bank	22.8%	A
6	National Bank of Canada	19.6%	B
7	Magna International	17.3%	B
8	Imperial Oil	14.6%	B
9	Sun Life Financial	14.5%	A
10	Thomson Reuters	9.9%	B
11	Bank of Nova Scotia	4.9%	B
12	Industrial Alliance Insurance	2.1%	B
13	Manulife Financial	1.6%	B
14	Power Corp of Canada	-2.0%	A
15	E-L Financial	-2.3%	B
16	Fortis	-3.6%	B
17	Great-West Lifeco	-3.7%	A
18	Power Financial	-5.7%	A
19	Whitecap Resources	-8.2%	B
20	ARC Resources	-10.0%	B
21	Linamar	-15.6%	B
22	CI Financial	-20.8%	B