Early retirement is a dream of most working professionals. While meeting this goal might look difficult without proper financial planning, investing in some fundamentally strong dividend stocks for the long term could help you reach the early retirement goal with ease. In this article, I’ll highlight one of the best Canadian dividend stocks you can buy right now that has the potential to make your early retirement dream come true sooner than you thought.
This one Canadian dividend stock could help you retire early
When it comes to investing in dividend stocks to meet retirement goals, you must always pay attention to a company’s fundamentals before investing your hard-earned savings in it. Considering that, I find the shares of Calgary-based energy company Enbridge (TSX:ENB)(NYSE:ENB) quite attractive. The stock has a 6.1% dividend yield at the time of writing as it trades with 13.1% year-to-date gains at $56.25 per share. ENB currently has a market cap of about $114.3 billion.
The company has an excellent track record of delivering outstanding value to its loyal investors for several decades. Interestingly, Enbridge has consistently been increasing its dividends for the last 27 consecutive years irrespective of economic and market cycles, reflecting the underlying strength in its balance sheet. Even during the pandemic phase, when most energy companies faced big operational challenges, this Canadian dividend-paying stock increased its annual dividend per share by 9.8% YoY (year over year) in 2020. Last year, Enbridge increased its annual dividends further by more than 3% YoY.
Increased focus on accelerating financial growth
Enbridge primarily focuses on the transportation and distribution of energy products. Notably, the company is responsible for the transmission of 20% of natural gas consumed in the U.S. market. Its huge network of liquids pipelines is responsible for about 30% of North America’s crude oil transports and exports.
In 2021, Enbridge registered a solid 20.4% YoY (year-over-year) positive growth in its total revenue to $47.1 billion amid robust demand for energy products. With this, the energy firm reported a solid 13.2% YoY increase in its adjusted earnings for the year to $2.74 per share.
Apart from its well-established traditional energy business, the company has been trying to expand its presence in the renewables segment by actively investing in renewable natural gas, hydrogen, and carbon capture and storage. In 2021, Enbridge also accelerated its U.S. Gulf Coast export strategy by acquiring a leading crude oil export facility Moda Midstream Operating in a deal worth US$3 billion.
The energy company’s consistent efforts to make its energy business more diversified are likely to help it accelerate its financial growth in the coming years and keep this reliable Canadian dividend stock soaring.
Bottom line
These positive factors make Enbridge one of the most stable dividend stocks to invest in right now. While its stock continues to outperform the broader market this year, it has seen a correction of nearly 4% in the last four months, despite its rising efforts to accelerate financial growth, making it look cheap and more attractive to buy right now.
