Most stocks on the Canadian market ended the year 2023 on a surprisingly strong note, as growing hopes of upcoming interest rate cuts triggered a rally in growth stocks in the final quarter of the year. However, growth stocks have largely failed to maintain this optimism at the start of 2024 after the U.S. Federal Reserve’s latest meeting minutes hinted that interest rates may remain elevated for long if needed to fight persistent inflation. Considering this volatile macroeconomic scenario, it could be a good idea for investors to hold some reliable dividend stocks in their portfolios in 2024.
In this article, I’ll highlight two such trustworthy, high-yielding TSX dividend stocks you can buy today.
BCE stock
The verdant-headquartered communications giant, BCE (TSX:BCE), ended 2023 deep in the negative territory, despite the TSX Composite Index’s more than 8% rise during the year. The stock has slid by around 10% in the last six months to currently trade at $54.29 per share, trimming its market cap to $49.4 billion. Nonetheless, these recent declines in share prices have made its annualized dividend yield look even more attractive, which currently stands at 7.1%.
In the last two years, the challenging economic environment has badly hurt the global advertising market by affecting demand and spending. Although this factor continued to trim BCE’s profit margin last year, the company’s financial growth remained stable due mainly to its well-diversified revenue streams and strong financial position.
In the first three quarters of 2023, the company’s total revenue grew positively by 2.6% YoY (year over year) to $18.2 billion with strong performance of its wireless segment. This growth drove BCE’s adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) up by 1.1% YoY to $7.9 billion during the same period, reflecting the company’s ability to continue performing well even in a difficult market environment. Besides its robust financials, BCE’s years-long track record of sustainable dividend growth makes this high-yielding TSX dividend stock even more attractive.
TC Energy stock
TC Energy (TSX:TRP) could be another trustworthy TSX dividend stock with a high-dividend yield to buy in 2024. The company mainly focuses on providing a variety of transportation and storage solutions to North America’s energy sector and generates most of its revenue from the United States.
After witnessing about 12% value erosion in the previous two years, TRP stock currently trades at $52.79 with a market cap of $54.6 billion. It has witnessed a minor 2% increase in its share prices in the first week of January 2024. At this market price, this top TSX dividend stock currently offers an attractive 7% annualized dividend yield.
Even as weaker oil and gas prices affected the financial growth of most energy companies, growing demand for its services drove TC Energy’s revenue up by 7% YoY to $11.7 billion in the first three quarters of 2023 combined. In these nine months, the company’s strong operational performance also strengthened its adjusted EBITDA by 9.2% YoY to $7.9 billion. I expect TC Energy to maintain its strong financial growth trends in the future as well as it continues to work towards the completion of major projects, including Coastal GasLink.
