Tag Archives: distributions

Why I Watch Each Dividend Get Paid to my BMO InvestorLine, CIBC Investor’s Edge and RBC Direct Investing Brokerage Accounts

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I’ve worked with many computer programs over the years and I’ve found errors and bad coding in most of them. I also have a nasty suspicious mind that spots errors in the pricing on meat packages versus the huge posted sign rate and mysterious mistakes appearing in my bank accounts like the one for the safety deposit box I relinquished 4 years previously. All of these mistakes can be fixed if pointed out politely and quickly. So I keep track of each payment of interest, dividends, distributions and return of capital made to my brokerage accounts.

UPDATE: This article is historical, from 2016. I no longer invest with RBC Direct Investing.

What I’ve Found Recently While Watching the Transaction and Activity History for My Brokerage Accounts

Here are three examples of things I’ve discovered by keeping an eye on deposits to my brokerage accounts.

A: New Flyer Industries, NFI, Did Not Pay a Dividend in February 2016 but Why?

Tracking the dividend payments alerted me to a change at New Flyer Industries. Although in all of 2015 and in January of 2016 it paid a tidy monthly dividend, in February 2016 nothing popped into my account.

Did NFI Cancel or Suspend Its 2016 Dividends or Cut Them?

I checked in with BMO InvestorLine via their secure email app. The reply was that NFI had not paid BMO any money to be distributed in trust as dividends nor had BMO received any notification of a pending dividend payment for February.
So I went to the investor Relations section at New Flyer Industries’ website.

New Flyer Industries Switches to Quarterly Dividend for 2016

I scanned the NFI News Releases but only found a reference to the December declaration of the dividend payable in January 2016.

I had to actually open a presentation to investors made in January 2016 to find what I was looking for and it was good news.

NFI is just changing to a quarterly payment schedule from its old method of making a distribution monthly.

Good News! NFI Plans to Increase Its Dividend in 2016

The news was actually better than I’d hoped: New Flyer also plans to increase its dividend by 12.9% starting in April 2016! That will raise the total annual dividend from $0.62CAD to $0.70.

This news will be officially announced in March 2016 by the Board of Directors if all goes to plan.

The record date will likely be March 31, 2016 with the dividend payable on April 15 2016.

The January 2016 payment was the last monthly payment.

So all good news there.

B: Keg Royalties Income Fund Trust Units Paid a Bonus Distribution in January 2016

I was pleasantly surprised to find I had too much money in my account after the Keg, KEG.UN, paid its distributions for January 28 2016. A closer look revealed they had paid the usual monthly distribution plus a second one which was almost as large.
I checked on the internet and discovered that a special distribution was declared on December 15 2015.

Free money. Cool!

C: Bank of Nova Scotia Declares Two Dividend Increases in One Year

I usually know a dividend increase is on its way because I keep an eye on the RedFlagDeals Investing discussion forum where members share news about dividend increases for Canadian companies. However, a few times I’ve been caught off guard when a company decides to increase its dividend twice in one year.

In 2015 BNS did just that. They raised the dividend in April and again in October. While dividend increases are easy to accept, dividend decreases are not. Keeping an eye on my transaction history helps me make sure I’m using the right projected income numbers for our budget. That’s not important right now when I’m just planning for retirement but it will be very important when we actually retire.

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Why Buying an Index Fund ETF Must be for the Long Term Not for a “One Year Wonder”

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Back in 2014, I had some RRSP cash to invest in the equities side of my portfolio but I didn’t have any particular companies in mind. Instead, I gradually bought $24 295 worth of XIC an, ETF that tries to reflect the entire S&P TSX Composite index. Looking back on how it performed in 2015, I decided yet again that Index Fund ETFs are most suited to someone investing for the long-term, such as a distant retirement, rather than for the short term or just one year.

Whether Markets Rise or Fall, Dividends Still Get Paid by Most Companies

Many of the companies on the TSX S&P Composite Index list pay dividends. These include Canada’s big banks, telecoms like Bell and Telus, and old established utilities like Fortis and Canadian Utilities. An ETF that mirrors holding those companies, like XIC, usually will pay distributions to unit holders based on the dividends and other income it receives.

What Was My (Quick and Dirty) Yield on Investment for XIC in 2015?

In 2015, my actual distribution payments totaled $674.64.

While it’s not a particularly accurate way to calculate my return on investment, if I just divide my distributions by the amount I spent on XIC units in 2014, I get a percentage of 2.78%.

This is a bit different than today’s (January 6, 2016) quote for XIC on RBC Direct Investing, which says I will get 3.24%.

Why is my number lower? Because I spent more to get the same distribution.

What Happened to the Unit Value of XIC During 2015?

You see, the TSX had a difficult year in 2015. Its overall value dropped, at least on paper. I bought my units of XIC in 2014 at a rough average cost of $23.14 each.

Today, at this moment, on January 6 2016 they are worth 20.20 each.

Sigh. They’ve dropped in value by $2.94 each. And that’s not even factoring in any inflation and what not for the year between when I bought them and today.

If I Needed That Money In One Year, What Alternative Investment Might Have Been Better?

It doesn’t matter much to me that on paper my XIC units are worth less today than when I bought them. That’s because I don’t need the cash today so I don’t need to sell them and make that paper loss a real loss.

But what if I had been investing for the short term? What if I did need the cash today?

Well, I likely would have invested the same $24 295 in 2014 in some one-year GICs. I did buy quite a few GICs that year so I can find an average rate for 1-year certificates. On average, I invested at a rate of 1.91% for 1-year GICs in 2014.

So if I had put my money in GICs, on January 1 2016, I would have had all of my principal returned to me ($24 295) and I would have received $464 in interest.

You can see that the GIC interest is $210.61 less than the XIC distributions.

But the XIC loss of principal if I had sold the units today would be $3 087.

Ouch!

The lesson is obvious to me. Don’t invest in an index fund ETF for the very short term unless you are prepared to accept the possibility of a large, real drop in value. I wouldn’t risk $3 087 to gain $211 in interest/dividend distributions over a one-year period.

That said, my XIC investment is supposed to be needed in 20 or more years. So I’ll let it putter along, paying the 0.10% expense ratio and hopefully over that length of time, the capital value of the units will have increased at least enough to cover inflation and even better enough to generate a capital gain and profit.

Just Out of Curiosity, How Much Did Bell Do Better than a GIC and than XIC Over 2015?

I noticed when I looked at this particular account, that in 2014, I also bought about $25 000 of BCE stock. It was paying dividends to yield about 4.92% at my purchase price. The actual dividend per share has increased since then, so it’s still yielding about 4.77% today, January 6 2016.

The shares were bought at $50.25 in mid-2014. They are trading for $54.50 right now, today, January 6 2016. So they have appreciated in value by $4.25 each.

Too bad there was no way to know that in advance, or to be sure that that trend would continue (which it probably won’t) or I would have been very happy to have invested the full $50 000 in BCE and left XIC on the shelf!

Ah well, that’s why we’re supposed to invest in a variety of assets with a variety of risks and volatilities. I’m satisfied with having some BCE, some XIC and some GICs as part of my overall blend. Between them, it was a reasonable 2015.

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