SNC Lavalin Dividend Increase

The board of directors of SNC-Lavalin has increased the quarterly cash dividend by 4.8% to $0.22 per share.

There's plenty of drama to be had with SNC-Lavalin these days. The CEO Pierre Duhaime stepped down amid allegations he allowed a series of unauthorized payments of $56-million to be made by a former vice president.

The current dividend payout ratio for SNC is 29% which is very low compared to most dividend payers. Looking back we can see that SNC has increased its dividend since 2000 according to the chart below.

Scotiabank Dividend Increase

Scotiabank increased it's dividend today by 6%.  The quarterly dividend went from $.52 cents to $.55 cents. BNS profit rose 15% this first quarter to 1.4 million compared to 1.25 million in 2011. Scotiabank is Canada's 3rd largest bank by assets at 1.44 billion. With the new dividend increase, BNS still has a dividend payout ration of 47% which says to me that there should be plenty of dividend increases down the road. Let's take a look Scotiabank's dividend history since 1996:

TD Dividend Increase

TORONTO, March 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ - The Toronto-Dominion Bank (the Bank) today announced that a dividend in an amount of seventy-two cents (72 cents) per fully paid common share in the capital stock of the Bank has been declared for the quarter ending April 30, 2012, payable on and after April 30, 2012, to shareholders of record at the close of business on April 4, 2012. This represents an increase in the quarterly dividend of 4 cents or 5.9 per cent compared with last quarter. 

Despite a lower quarter profit then in 2011, TD managed to pop out a dividend increase. An almost 6% dividend increase still beats inflationary increases which average from 2-4% so it still looks good to me. Even with the new dividend increase, TD's dividend payout ratio is only 45% which looks very strong for future dividend increases. Let's take a look at TD's dividend history since 2000:

RBC Dividend Increase

TORONTO, March 1, 2012 /CNW/ - Royal Bank of Canada (RY on TSX and NYSE) today announced an increase to its quarterly common share dividend of 3 cents per share or 6 per cent to 57 cents, payable on and after May 24, 2012, to common shareholders of record at the close of business on April 25, 2012. 

RBC posted a 1.82 billion dollar first quarter profit today which was down slightly from 2011. With a dividend ratio of 71%, RBC will surely be able to keep up dividend payments. If not they will just have to increase user fees like they always do. Let's have a look at RBC's dividend history since 2000: