I was digging around for information on companies that regularly raise their dividends and came across a document published by Mergent Inc. It has a rather impressive table showing how dividend-growth stocks have outperformed the S&P 500 Index over 1-, 3-, 5-, 10-, 15- and 20-year periods with less volatility.

The rip-roaring rally in stocks since early March might have left some investors feeling like they missed the boat. But there are still some good buys in the market if you are a dividend or income investor. Of note are non-cyclical companies with high and growing dividends.

Gail Bebee, author of No Hype - The Straight Goods on Investing Your Money, says now is the time to start taking steps to reduce your taxes for the 2009 filing year. “Taxpayers shouldn’t just file away their 2008 tax returns. By spending just a few minutes examining the income ...

As of market close on Dec. 16, 2008, there were only 26 TSX stocks which, according to Bloomberg, paid dividends and also posted a positive year-to-date return. Another 135 paid dividends and had negative returns but lost less than the 35.14% decline incurred by the TSX composite. Here's the top ...

Is it the Canadian banks’ turn to implode? It’s almost unimaginable to pose this question of the worlds’ soundest banking system, but could their stocks be on the verge of collapsing like the U.S. banks did?

The world’s soundest banking system has rarely been so undervalued by investors. As of Oct. 31, the average dividend yield on the Big Five Canadian banks stood at 5.2%, way above the 3.7% yield on 10-year Canadian government bonds. It’s not often bank dividend yields exceed the 10-year government bond ...

Isn’t the financial sector supposed to be in dire straits? Maybe they are, but the latest Market Insight publication from AIC Funds says 76% of their largest 25 financial stocks raised dividends in the past year, 20% had no change, and 4% had a decrease.