What are we looking for?
Dependable dividend-paying stocks used by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board to bolster its 2025 holdings and to achieve an impressive 9.3-per-cent return.
The screen
Specifically, the country’s largest pension fund reported that return for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2025. The growth resulted in overall assets of $714.4-billion at the end of the period despite recent market volatility.
While many retail investors would like to track the CPP’s holdings, and its returns, that’s a daunting task. Publicly traded shares are just one component of the fund’s total assets, which also include private equity holdings, credit investments, real estate and more.
Nonetheless, the Successful Investor’s analysts see real value in reviewing the CPP’s dividend-paying holdings and evaluating the sustainability of the dividend payouts.
For this particular search, we started with the fund’s list of dividend payers. We then narrowed that list to those stocks recently acquired by CPP Investments as well as those in which it recently upped its stake. From there, we looked at revenue, earnings and growth prospects before applying our TSI Dividend Sustainability Rating System; it awards points to a stock based on key factors:
- One point for five years of continuous dividend payments – two points for more than five;
- two points if it has raised the payment in the past five years;
- one point for management’s commitment to dividends;
- one point for operating in non-cyclical industries;
- one point for limited exposure to foreign currency rates and freedom from political interference;
- two points for a strong balance sheet, including manageable debt and adequate cash;
- two points for a long-term record of positive earnings and cash flow sufficient to cover dividend payments
- one point for an industry leader.
Companies with 10 to 12 points have the most secure dividends, or the highest sustainability. Those with seven to nine points have above-average sustainability; average sustainability, four to six points; and below-average sustainability, one to three points.
More about TSI Network
TSI Network is the online home of the Successful Investor Inc. – the group of widely followed Canadian investment newsletters by editor and publisher Pat McKeough. They include our award-winning flagship newsletter, The Successful Investor, and the TSI Dividend Advisor. TSI Network is also affiliated with Successful Investor Wealth Management.
What we found
Our TSI Dividend Sustainability Rating System generated five stocks. Quebecor Inc. QBR-B-T is a diversified media and telecommunications company based in Montreal. It’s one of three new stock holdings for fiscal 2025 that the CPP highlighted in its latest report. Another is Teck Resources Ltd. TECK-B-T Headquartered in Vancouver, Teck operates copper and zinc mines. The third is Sabesp SBS-N, Brazil’s largest sanitation company (serving Sao Paulo state) and one of the world’s largest.
Meantime, the CPP upped its stake in Montreal-headquartered WSP Global Inc. WSP-T, which provides engineering and consulting services. That stock was already the fund’s largest Canadian publicly traded shareholding. (Note: WSP’s meagre dividend yield reflects the 32.5-per-cent price climb for the stock over the past year.) Japan’s Asahi Group Holdings Ltd. ASBRF, a beverage company, is another stock the fund added in its most recent fiscal year.
We advise investors to do additional research on investments we identify here.
Scott Clayton, MBA, is senior analyst for TSI Network and associate editor of TSI Dividend Advisor.