Canadian investors don’t need to search far for a top-quality dividend stock. The TSX is loaded with high-yielding, dividend-paying companies, many of which also own impressive payout streaks. And when it comes to choosing dividend stocks, both the yield and payout dependability should be top of mind.
With all the volatility that investors have endured over the past couple of years, building a dependable stream of passive income could be a wise idea, especially when there’s no shortage of dividend stocks to choose from.
I’ve put together a basket of four top dividend stocks yielding above 4% at today’s stock prices.
If you’re thinking of adding some passive income to your portfolio, these four companies are an excellent place to start.
Bank of Nova Scotia
Speaking of great places to start, passive-income investors can’t go wrong with the Canadian banks. The Big Five all pay top yields at today’s prices and have some of the longest payout streaks around.
At a yield above 6.5% right now, Bank of Nova Scotia (TSX:BNS) is the highest-yielding amongst the major Canadian banks. The $75 billion bank has also been paying a dividend to its shareholders for close to 200 consecutive years.
When you factor in both the yield and payout streak, not many dividend stocks on the TSX can compete with Bank of Nova Scotia.
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners
Similar to bank stocks, there’s not a whole lot to get excited about with the utility sector, either. However, when it comes to dividends, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with boring.
While Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (TSX:BIP.UN) is far from the most exciting stock on the TSX, the company offers investors both passive income and defensiveness. In addition to a 4% dividend yield, the stock can balance out higher-risk growth stocks in a portfolio with its dependability and typically low levels of volatility.
Northland Power
There are a couple of reasons that passive-income investors might want to have Northland Power (TSX:NPI) on their radar.
First, in addition to a 4.5% yield, the renewable energy stock also has the ability to drive long-term, market-beating returns. Shares have trailed the market over the past five years, but that’s largely due to the fact that the stock is trading close to 50% below all-time highs set in early 2021.
Second, as previously mentioned, shares are trading at a massive discount. The renewable energy sector as a whole has been on the decline over the past two years, presenting long-term investors with an incredibly opportunistic time to load up.
Telus
To balance out this diversified basket of dividend stocks, I’ve included a Canadian leader in the telecommunication space.
A 5.5% dividend yield is enough of a reason for passive-income investors to have Telus (TSX:T) on their watch lists. However, like Northland Power, there’s potential market-beating growth potential here, too.
When including dividends, Telus has just about kept up with the returns of the S&P/TSX Composite Index over the past five years. But as we are still in the very early days of the expansion of 5G technology, I’d bank on Telus returning to once again outperforming the market sooner rather than later.
