Ins and outs : Key benefits of dividend stocks

Article Excerpt

Growth and income. The best dividend-paying stocks offer capital-gains growth and regular income from the dividends themselves. Those pay ments are made regardless of how quickly the price of the underlying stock rises. Dividends can grow. Stock prices rise and fall, so capital losses often follow capital gains, at least temporarily. Interest on a bond or GIC holds steady, at best. But dividend-paying stocks like to ratchet their dividends upward—they tend to hold them steady in a bad year and raise them in a good one. That pattern also provides a hedge against inflation. Dividends are a sign of investment quality. Some good companies reinvest profit instead of paying dividends. But fraudulent and failing companies are hardly ever dividend-paying stocks. So if you only buy stocks that pay dividends, you’ll automatically stay out of almost all the market’s worst stocks. Dividend income gets favourable tax treatment. Taxpayers who hold Canadian dividend-paying stocks get an additional bonus: Their dividends can be eligible for Canada’s…