Q: I’m an income investor. Basically I live off my dividend stream without the need to touch capital. In this approach, periodically I look for opportunities to bump up my income stream. I see that PPL is pretty close to its highs and that it only raised its dividend marginally last year. This is the sort of situation where I consider perhaps a switch to something paying a higher dividend with a potential of higher stock price appreciation over a longer period of time. I’m thinking of moving into some combination of BNS, ENB, maybe even BCE. what do you think??
5i Research Answer:
We would be fine with a switch to ENB or BNS, though would not deem a switch necessary. All of these may act similarly, and we are comfortable with letting PPL 'ride'. If taxes apply, we would be far less inclined to switch. As rates fall PPL could continue to do well. While we think BCE is OK, we would let it work out some of its issues first before considering switches.