Canada is well-known for its plethora of dividend stocks. Stocks with a yield around 4% are a good place to look. Often their dividends are sustainable, and their businesses are growing enough to sustain some steady dividend increases.
If you are looking for some quality dividend stocks with yields over 4%, these four stocks should be on your radar.
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A safe utility stock for dividends
Fortis (TSX: FTS) is a good anchor for a dividend portfolio. This is a stock you buy if you want safe and reliable income, but you aren’t overly concerned with growth.
Fortis is a low beta stock, which means it tends to be less volatile than the overall market. It is not exciting, but it can serve a place in a conservative portfolio.
It operates a portfolio of distribution and transmission utilities. These are some of the safest and most predictable assets in the sector. By prudently investing in its infrastructure, Fortis is growing its rate base by an average of 6.5% per year.
That will support its projected 4–6% annual dividend growth plan. The company has already increased its dividend for 51 consecutive years. That trajectory doesn’t look to change any time soon. It yields 4% today.
A real estate stock for predictable income
Another ultra-safe stock for a 4.3% dividend yield is Granite Real Estate Investment Trust (TSX: GRT.UN). This is a step up on the risk spectrum from Fortis, but not by much.
I like to think of Granite as an infrastructure company. It provides the building shells to accommodate logistics, commerce, and manufacturing across Canada, the U.S., and Europe. Granite has long-term leases (+6-year terms), good occupancy (94.5%), and solid cash flow per unit growth (8% compounded over the past five years).
The REIT has one of the best balance sheets in the sector. This has afforded it ample flexibility through recent stock market weakness. Granite’s strong balance sheet has allowed it to steadily grow its distribution for 13 consecutive years.
A Canadian infrastructure stock for dividends
Pembina Pipeline (TSX: PPL) is a great stock for steady dividends. Pembina is an energy infrastructure leader in Western Canada. It offers a one-stop shop for energy producers’ collection, egress, storage, and processing needs.
Pembina’s dividend is very stable because it is funded fully from its highly contracted revenue streams. In the past few years, the company has made several accretive acquisitions that have bolstered strong free cash flow generation.
Today, it sits with a sector-leading balance sheet that will support its LNG growth ambitions. Pembina has recently returned to an annual dividend growth posture. It yields 4.6% right now.
A U.S. apartment REIT growing its distribution
BSR REIT (TSX:HOM.UN) is a Canadian-listed stock. However, all its garden-style apartments are in the U.S. sunbelt states. Its well-located assets offer tenants attractive amenities at reasonable rental rates.
Its Texas markets experienced a surge in apartment supply in 2024. Fortunately, for the reasons above, the REIT has held 95%-plus occupancy and maintained neutral rental rates. Given strong growth dynamics in Texas, rental rate growth is expected to recover in 2025.
Its stock has traded at a wide discount to U.S. apartment peers. Given the disconnect, BSR has bought back a lot of stock in 2023 and 2024. This has helped drive low double-digit cash flow per unit growth.
BSR just increased its distribution by 7%-plus. This quality dividend stock yields 4.3% right now.
