The Canadian economy has shown exceptional resilience during the Great Recession and continues to charge ahead of the U.S. and other developed economies. However, due to their high exposures to volatile materials and energy sectors, the nation’s leading equity indices have underperformed their U.S. peers by a large margin. Still, investors in the pursuit of a meaningful yield can find plenty of investment opportunities in Canadian dividend stocks.

Dividend stocks have fared pretty well on both sides of the border. Despite the recent rebound in bond yields, the U.S. Treasury and Canadian government 10-year bond yields remain below 2%, which makes high-yield dividend stocks with strong fundamentals especially attractive investment vehicles for income investors.

In search of sustainable dividends at reasonably high yields, investors should focus on those companies that pay dividend yields higher than those on comparable assets and that exhibit stability and sustainability of earnings and dividend growth over time. Manageable debt levels, payout ratios below ominous rates and reasonable valuations are also important variables. Here is the top 6 of the 60 Best S&P/TSX Dividend Yielding Stocks. Go HERE or click on the image for the entire list of 60 Dividend Yields:

THESE US COMPANIES HAVE RAISED THEIR DIVIDENDS FOR 50 CONSECUTIVE YEARS

Imagine if you had bought these stocks 20 years ago.

If you had, then right now you’d be earning dividend yields of… 27%… 33%… even as high as 65%. And that’s from brand name companies like Proctor & Gamble (NYSE: PG) and Lowe’s (NYSE: LOW).

Unfortunately, most investors will never see dividend yields like these. They don’t have the patience. They want big dividend checks now, and in a classic twist of irony, they’re missing out on some of the market’s highest-yielding opportunities.

Let me explain…

When most investors think about buying an income stock, they focus solely on the stock’s current yield. They think bigger equals better, and they’re most interested in stocks that offer headline grabbing dividend yields.

Don’t get me wrong… to some extent they’re right. Clearly, a higher dividend puts more cash in your pocket.

But as I told you recently, yield isn’t the only key to a good income investment… you also need to consider a company’s dividend growth. Dividend growth can turn lower-yielding stocks into big income producers over time.

For example, right now Proctor & Gamble pays a dividend yield of 3.2%… nothing special. But in the past 20 years, the company has raised its dividend 799%. That means if you had bought the stock back in 1992, then you would be currently earning a yield on cost of 33%.

The same goes for Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) and Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO). If you had bought shares of these companies twenty years ago, thanks to dividend increases, those shares would be paying you over 27% today.

That’s the power of dividend growth… and it’s why I think it’s one of the most important aspects of any income investment.

But that begs the question, how do you know if a company is going to increase its dividend? Dividend increases are decided by a company’s board of directors, and there’s no law that says a company must increase its payout.

That’s why I’ve found its best to look at companies that already have a strong track record of growing their dividend. If a company has a history of increasing its dividend year in and year out, then dividend increases are clearly an important part of the company’s culture. All other things being equal, if a company has increased its dividend consistently for 10, 20… even 50 years or more, then it’s going to be far more likely to keep its dividends growing in the future.

With that in mind, I recently conducted an extensive search to try and find companies that have raised their dividends for 50 years of more.

As you can see, each of these stocks has increased its dividend every year for at least half a century.

The market clearly rewards that kind of behavior. Of the 14 companies on the list, all of them have handedly outperformed the 342% return from the S&P 500 in the last 20 years.

But the real story is what those dividend increases have been able to do for income-oriented investors. Just look at the dividend yields you’d currently be earning if you had bought these stocks just 20 years ago…

As you can see, after 20 years of consecutive dividend increases, each of these stocks offers a very attractive yield on cost. The highest yielding stock on the list – Lowe’s – has a yield on cost of 65%… and that’s from a $37 billion company.

That just goes to show what dividend increases can do for your portfolio. Thanks to dividend increases, some of the market’s lowest-yielding stocks can turn into big dividend payers over time.

Of course with investing, nothing is 100% certain. Just because a stock has increased its dividend for 50 consecutive years, it doesn’t mean it’s guaranteed to increase it for another 50.

But the lesson here is simple — if you’re ignoring dividend increases, then you could be missing out on some of the market’s biggest high-yield opportunities.

[Note: If you’re interested in dividend growth, you need to learn more about my “WGB Retirement Fund.” The 12 stocks that make up this “fund” have seen dividend increases of 21% in the past year… 85% in four years… and even one that stock that’s increased payments every year for half a century. Maybe that’s why some of America’s largest pension funds own millions of dollars worth of these stocks. To learn more about these stocks — including several names and ticker symbols — follow this link.]

All the best,

Paul Tracy
StreetAuthority Co-founder, Chief Investment Strategist — Top 10 Stocks

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Disclosure: Neither Paul Tracy nor StreetAuthority own shares of the securities mentioned in this article. In accordance with company policies, StreetAuthority always provides readers with at least 48 hours advance notice before buying or selling any securities in any “real money” model portfolio. Members of our staff are restricted from buying or selling any securities for two weeks after being featured in our advisories or on our website, as monitored by our compliance officer.