Five dividend stocks we plan to purchase in 2026

Back in December, I shared the five stocks that we were considering to purchase for our 2026 TFSA contributions. Now that the contributions & purchases are done, I thought it would be worthwhile to look ahead and consider other stocks we plan to purchase this year. 

Long-time readers may recall that we typically follow a contribution and purchase pattern in the first half of the year – we max out TFSAs first, then max out RRSPs, and finally contribute to non-registered accounts. I believe it is advantageous to max out the tax-advantaged and tax-deferred accounts before contributing to non-registered accounts (i.e. taxable). This way of contributing should allow us to be as tax efficient as possible.

With TFSA purchases done, the five stocks that we plan to purchase will be in RRSP and/or non-registered accounts. Therefore, we aren’t limited to only Canadian dividend stocks but potentially US dividend stocks and US index ETFs. 

And because we are trying to reduce the number of individual dividend stocks in our dividend portfolio rather than increasing that number, we will be adding more shares of dividend stocks or ETFs that we already own.

Which five stocks are we planning to purchase in 2026? 

Let’s find out.

Consideration #1: Brookfield Corporation (BN.TO)

Brookfield Corporation was one of the stocks we considered buying for the 2026 TFSA contribution. Throughout 2025, BN share price has steadily climbed and provided a solid return to shareholders.

Brookfield Corporation is one of the largest alternative investment management companies in the world. The company has been around for over 125 years and it focuses on building long-term wealth for institutions and individuals around the world. It boasts a highly Impressive CAGR of 19% over the past thirty years. At the time of writing, Brookfield Corporation has more than $1 trillion in assets under management (+$730 billion in Americas, +$230B in Europe & Middle East, and +$150B in Asia Pacific). In addition, the stock went through a 3:2 split in early October. 

Despite the solid track record, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for Brookfield Corporation throughout 2025. BN announced very strong Q3 2025 results but missed earnings per share by about 4.7% compared to the guidance. Combined with a year-over-year decline in sales caused a 5% drop in share price after the Q3 report. However, I strongly believe in BN’s management team, especially the CEO Bruce Flatt. He and his team have demonstrated solid track records over the last 25 years. (Plus, they’re heavily invested in the company themselves – ‘skin in the game.’) Not only has the team produced a 19% CAGR over the past thirty years, Brookfield’s assets under management grew from $15 billion to over $1 trillion from 2000 to 2025. Knowing this impressive history, I have no doubt that Brookfield will continue to grow its empire and reward its shareholders. 

Although the dividend yield is extremely low, Brookfield Corporation has provided a solid total return over the years. I have no doubt this trend will continue. 

Consideration #2: iShares Core MSCI AC World ex Canada Idx ETF (XAW)

If you examine our dividend portfolio, you will see that we hold many Canadian dividend stocks, and like many Canadian investors, we have a large allocation to Canada. (aka home bias) Therefore, investing in XAW allows us to diversify outside of Canada and own international stocks that we wouldn’t be able to purchase ourselves.

XAW is extremely diversified geographically and sector-wise. At the time of writing, it has 8,323 aggregate underlying holdings with the top ten holdings being Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Broadcom, Alphabet, Meta, Tesla and TSMC. Unlike many index ETFs, the XAW’s top 10 holdings make up less than 25% of the total weighting.

Geographically, XAW has just under 65% exposure to the US market, over 5% to the Japanese market, over 3% to the UK market, over 3% to the Chinese market, and around 2.5% to the Taiwanese market. Some investors may have concerns with the high US exposure but I’m not worried at all. After all, most of the top international companies are based in the US and the S&P 500 and NASDAQ have typically outperformed compared to other market indices. 

The heavy exposure to the US market does mean that if the US market performs poorly, XAW would perform poorly too. But with high tech companies like Alphabet, Nvidia, Apple, and Amazon flying high and building the future of the world via AI and other technologies, I’m not overly concerned with XAW’s high exposure to the US market. 

Consideration #3: Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO)

As mentioned a few times, we added more CNQ shares in our dividend portfolio throughout 2025. There are two key reasons why I like CNQ.

One, CNQ has grown its dividend payout by 56.7% over the last three years, or 18.8% annualized (ignoring the special dividend payment in 2022). If we look back further, CNQ has grown its dividend payout by 410.9% in the last 10 years or 41.09% annualized. I expect CNQ to continue raising dividend payout in the 10% range. At an initial dividend yield just shy of 5%, such a high initial yield combined with a solid dividend growth record is very enticing to dividend investors like us.

Second, CNQ’s business is well diversified. It is involved in natural gas, light and heavy crude oil, bitumen, and synthetic crude oil. In November 2025, CNQ completed the AOSP swap with Shell, giving CNQ 100% ownership of the Albian oil sands mines and adding around 31,000 barrels per day of zero-decline bitumen production. Oil sands assets like the Albian oil sands mines are great for companies like CNQ. These oil sands assets allow for decades of production with minimal decline rates compared to conventional oil wells, which I see is a positive for CNQ.  

Since CNQ is in the commodity sector, we must consider the cyclical nature. If the oil price is high, CNQ will typically perform well; if the oil price is low, CNQ will suffer as a result. Another thing to consider is government regulations and changes to emissions plans, which can create uncertainty for companies like CNQ. 

Having said that, because CNQ has a relatively high dividend yield and a healthy dividend growth rate, one can simply ride the waves in bad times and trim CNQ slightly in the good times. 

Consideration #4: Capital Power Corp (CPX.TO)

Capital Power Corp is a Canadian independent power generation company based in Edmonton, Alberta. The company develops, acquires, owns, and operates power generation facilities using a variety of energy sources. The company has around 12GW of annual power generation capacity, which makes it the fifth largest gas-focused independent power producer in North America. About 12% of the 12GW capacity comes from renewables, with the remainder coming from other flexible generation sources. 

Over the last few years, Capital Power has enhanced its US generation capability, growing from ~5.2 GW of generation capacity in 2022 to ~10.4 GW in 2025. With a forecast that the US will need 20% more power generation by 2030, Capital Power plans to continue growing its US power generation capability in the future to meet this growing demand. 

Why do I like Capital Power Corp? Given that AI is the future and these AI data centres require a lot of power to run them, I believe the power demands will only increase in the future. Capital Power’s plan to use its natural gas and renewable generation and power storage facilities to grow its power generation capability in both the US and Canada makes a lot of sense to me. The company has stated there’s ~25 GW pipeline possible via fleet optimization and mergers and acquisitions, so there is more room for CPX to grow. 

From a dividend investor perspective, Capital Power recently announced a 6% dividend payout increase, bringing the initial dividend yield to over 4%. The company has a 5-year dividend growth rate of around 6.3%, which is very solid for a utility company. I do expect the dividend growth rate to drop in the future given the high initial dividend yield. 

In the2025 Investor Day presentation, Capital Power provided some 2030 targets:

• 50% cumulative increase in US capacity (~3.5 GW)
• 13-15% annual total share return 
• 8-10% AFFO per share growth
• 2-4% annual dividend growth target 

All these numbers look solid to me and give me confidence in the future of Capital Power. I particularly like the 13-15% annual total share return perspective. And the 2-4% annual dividend growth target is on the low end of dividend payout increases but expected when I look at other utility stocks. 

Utility stocks like Emera, Hydro One, Brookfield Renewable Corp, Fortis, and Capital Power Corp currently make up about 6% of our dividend portfolio. Ideally, I’d like to see the utility sector taking between eight and ten percent of our dividend portfolio. Adding some Capital Power Corp will help increase the weight of the utility sector. 

Consideration #5: Alphabet (GOOGL)

Alphabet had a monster second half of 2025. The stock went from around $170 in early June to over $300 by the end of the year. For a while, many investors doubted Alphabet and believed the company had been left in the dust by other high-tech companies. However, it proved otherwise with very solid quarter results and showed that it is one of the leaders in the AI race and monetization. 

Google proved that AI has improved the search experience and resulted in a double-digit growth in search queries and revenues. With the help of AI, Google has been able to drive more targeted ad monetization to users. AI not only helped the search revenues but also Google Cloud’s revenues – the revenues grew 35% YoY in Q3 2025, with the operation margin increasing from 17.1 to 23.7%! 

What I like about Alphabet is the company’s continued dominance on the internet. Despite the growing popularity of ChatGPT, Google search still remains the leader, owning around 90% of the global search engine market. YouTube is more popular than ever, with over 122 million users a day in the US alone and over 2.5 billion monthly users globally. Alphabet can then use content and data from YouTube to train and improve its AI Gemini. More and more users are now paying for Google Cloud for more cloud storage, hence for the increase in Google Cloud revenues and margin. 

Waymo, the autonomous driving arm, is making its way. I haven’t had the chance of taking a Waymo Uber, but I have seen many Waymo cars in Silicon Valley. As much as Tesla is getting attention for its autonomous driving capability, I believe Waymo is slightly ahead of Tesla, covering more operational areas and bringing in more revenue for Alphabet. 

Recently, Alphabet announced TPU (Tensor Processing Units) deals with Meta and Apple. The existing partnership between Alphabet and Antropic means that TPU will start generating more revenue in the future. Who knows, perhaps Alphabet can surpass Nvidia’s dominance in AI chips in the future. 

There are certainly risks of adding more shares of Alphabet. For one, the run-up in the second half of 2025 means that Alphabet is now trading around 30x earnings. Is the AI optimism already priced in? Should we wait for a small price correction before adding more shares? Another thing to consider is whether more and more users will use AI to bypass traditional search results. 

In September 2025, Alphabet received a positive ruling from a US federal judge that the company doesn’t need to divest and sell off Chrome. This was one of the main reasons for the share price run-up. Alphabet will certainly face more antitrust cases in the future and will the company get favourable rulings? That’s an uncertainty that shareholders need to be OK with. 

We started investing in Alphabet many years ago, before the company paid any dividends. I continue to believe in the company and its very strong moat. It is an innovative company and I have no doubt the company will continue to lead in technology innovations. 

Summary – Five dividend stocks we plan to purchase in 2026

These are the five dividend stocks we plan to purchase in 2026 in our RRSPs and non-registered accounts. If we decide to buy more GOOGL shares, we would need to consider the exchange rate and also avoid any brokerage exchange fee charges. The best way to avoid exchange fees is using Norbert’s Gambit. 

What are some stocks you are considering and planning to buy in 2026?