As the stock market and economy both continue to face headwinds, it’s essential for investors to own Canadian dividend stocks that are safe and you can have confidence in holding for the long haul.
Owning safe stocks helps to protect your capital better. Furthermore, many of these companies will often pay an attractive dividend, allowing you to continue earning a return, even if the broader market is flat or in a decline.
Most importantly, though, having confidence in the Canadian stocks that you own will help you to better manage your emotions and avoid wanting to sell off your investments during these turbulent periods, at a time when almost every stock is trading cheaply and below their true value.
So with that in mind, if you’re looking to shore up your portfolio and buy high-quality and safe Canadian dividend stocks that can help protect your capital in this market environment, here are two of the top companies to consider today.
An ultra-safe Canadian dividend stock to buy now
Anytime you’re looking for a low-risk and low-volatility dividend stock to add to your portfolio, utility stocks like Emera (TSX: EMA), are some of the first to consider.
Emera provides gas and electricity services to residential and commercial customers all across North America. In fact, the company operates in six different countries. This is important because every region that Emera operates in helps to diversify its regulatory risk.
Therefore, because it offers essential services, is regulated by governments, and has a well-diversified portfolio of utility companies, Emera is extremely safe. This safety makes it one of the best Canadian dividend stocks to buy during these turbulent times.
Furthermore, because it’s so reliable and the services it offers are so defensive, much of its revenue and earnings are predictable. So, Emera can keep its dividend safe and, in fact, plan its annual dividend increases years in advance. This reliability is another reason why it’s one of the top stocks to buy now.
For example, Emera offers a current dividend yield of 4.7%, but it also plans to increase its dividend between 4% and 5% each year through 2025.
Therefore, considering it’s one of the lowest volatility stocks on the market, is extremely well run, highly defensive and offers attractive and growing passive income, Emera is certainly one of the best Canadian dividend stocks to buy now while the market continues to face severe headwinds.
This infrastructure stock is one of the top investments to buy now
In addition to Emera, another high-quality and highly reliable dividend stock to buy now and hold for years is Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (TSX: BIP.UN), the impressive defensive growth stock.
Brookfield is one of the best investments to make, especially in this environment, because the infrastructure assets it owns are highly defensive, making it ideal for turbulent markets. In addition, Brookfield is constantly recycling capital. BIP.UN is run like a growth stock, making it an investment that you can plan to buy in this environment and hold for years to come.
With assets such as telecom towers, data storage centres, ports, railroads and utilities, Brookfield is one of the top Canadian dividend stocks you can buy.
Furthermore, it’s one of the few businesses that can benefit from inflation. And just like Emera, not only does it offer an attractive dividend that currently yields upwards of 4.3%, but it also plans to increase its distribution each year by 5% to 9%.
Therefore, if you’re looking for a safe Canadian dividend stock you can buy in this environment and hold for years to come even after the economy has recovered, Brookfield Infrastructure is one of the best investments to consider today, especially while it trades nearly 20% off its highs.
