Planning to Take Your Eye Off the Markets This Summer? Rest Easy With These 5 Dividend Behemoths

Planning to take some time away from the markets this summer? Rest easy with these five dividend giants, including Royal Bank of Canada (TSX:RY)(NYSE:RY).

Jason Phillips

Jason is a tried and true stock enthusiast who's been following the markets devotedly for the past five years. Jason enjoys learning about the unique role that businesses serve within our economy and how those businesses are able to use their strengths to tap into new and exciting opportunities that will enable them to grow bigger and stronger well into the future.

Published July 4, 2018 8:40 am EDT

A lot of Canadians take time off for the summer to spend time with their families.

For a lot of people, that means they’d rather not have to put up with the hassle of following the public markets on a daily — or, in some cases, hourly — basis to keep up with the latest news headlines, earnings releases, and corporate restructurings.

But at the same time, that doesn’t mean you have to get out of the market entirely either.

Some readers may be familiar with the time-old expression “sell in May and go away until October,” which speaks to the notion that there oftentimes isn’t a lot of activity that takes place in the summer months, and investors can afford to spend time pursuing other endeavours.

However, that adage also fails to account for the times that markets did react with some degree of vigor — in either direction.

On one hand, if markets were to take off, like they did in the summers of 2013 and 2014, that’s one thing.

On the other hand, if markets were to suffer a similar fate as they did as recently as the summer of 2015, you’re probably going to wish you owned at least a couple of these stocks.

BCE Inc. (TSX: BCE)(NYSE: BCE) is one of Canada’s leading telecom companies, but what makes Bell Canada stand out among its peers is the company’s dividend yield, which currently sits at 5.67%.

Bell would be classified as a company in the “mature” stage of its life cycle, so don’t expect any major increases to the dividend, but the current yield should be enough to keep you contented while you wait.

Brookfield Property Partners LP (TSX: BPY.UN)(NYSE:BPY) is a subset of the Brookfield family of companies, which collectively hold title to some of the most valuable real estate properties in key markets across the world.

Relatively speaking, real estate is a pretty stable asset class, meaning you aren’t going to be subject to too much volatility with this stock; additionally, the shares pay a solid 5.05% yield.

Financial institutions like Royal Bank of Canada (TSX: RY)(NYSE: RY) have more exposure to the fluctuations of the economic cycle than the aforementioned two companies.

At the same time, Canada’s financial system is among the most regulated in the world, and Royal Bank just happens to be the largest in that group.

Royal Bank stock pays shareholders 3.80% today. Investors looking for a bank with more yield may want to consider Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (TSX: CM)(NYSE: CM); meanwhile, those looking for an opportunity to “buy on the dip” may prefer Bank of Nova Scotia (TSX: BNS)(NYSE: BNS) instead.