Canadian financials have had a strong start to the year, with the sector posting double-digit returns. Some market pundits suggest this may continue as investors tend to gravitate toward high-quality, less volatile, dividend-paying names with a strong earnings presence during uncertain times.
Dividends often reflect safe and steady business models – and of course, Allan and I love to get paid while we wait for capital appreciation. We limited the screen to dividend-payers as a result. Then we looked at debt/equity as our final safety metric. It is the total debt outstanding divided by shareholder equity. A smaller number is preferred. Price/earnings is the share price divided by the projected earnings per share.