I am a huge fan of non U.S. bank stocks. No offense to the good old red, white and blue, but investing in non U.S. stocks will provide your Roth IRA stock portfolio with true diversification in the banking sector. It is not wise to hold all of your eggs in one basket. Enter... Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, stock ticker CM. I strongly believe that Canadian banks should trade at a premium to U.S. banks, because of their stronger regulatory system. You gotta love those Canadian bank dividend yields!
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce a.k.a. CIBC is a world-wide financial institution. CIBC has three strategic business units: retail and business banking, wealth management, and wholesale banking. Retail and business banking provides financial products, advice and services through nearly 1,100 branches, as well as automated banking machines, mobile sales forces, telephone banking, online and mobile banking. Wealth management comprises asset management, retail brokerage and private wealth management businesses. Wholesale banking provides credit, capital markets, investment banking, merchant banking and research products and services. On August 31, 2011, CIBC acquired 41% of American Century Investments (ACI) and has a $30,740,000,000.00 market cap ($30.74 billion dollars).
With a consistent quarterly dividend payment of 90 cents per share, a current dividend yield of 4.60%, CM is a winner in my book. And my book is not full of many bank stocks. Bank stocks have been risky since the Great Recession, but in order to succeed and live the retirement of your dreams you will need to invest in a few bank stocks since they are selling on the CHEAP! Short term CM may provide you with some up and down swings, however long term, with the high dividend and good fundamentals, I foresee this diamond in the rough outperforming in a major way. Diamonds are forever! (click HERE for some theme music while you read the rest of this post).
CM was selling for $106.08 per share back in October of 2007 and is currently selling at $76.73 as of February 10th, 2012. Now of course you should not buy CM just because it used to be worth $30.00 more a while ago, but it is something to consider. Since September 26th, 2006 CM has not missed a dividend payment and just think of all the trouble the banking sector has gone through since that time. CM did not crumble during the Great Recession. There is no greater test when researching which bank stock to invest into than determining if they have shafted shareholders over the past ten years. CM put shareholders first. Even when their share price went to $29.20 on March 6th, 2009 they kept paying their dividend. A steady 87 cents per share from that point on, until they raised it to 90 cents on September 26th, 2011!
"The honor is in the dollar kid" - Quote from the movie Boiler Room. Yes, it is important to listen to company quarterly conference calls, however if a company continues to pay you to hold onto their shares and then increases their dividend when their competitors are cutting their yield or eliminating their dividend all together, well then it's time to invest. Get in when CM is at a low and hold for life. Let that 90 cents per share compound and your money will work for you, instead of you working for it!
Simply put, CM has strong price momentum, and is supported by a healthy dividend, which qualifies as a winner for the Common Man trying to survive.
Until next time friends, keep investing as much as you can each week into high yielding dividend aristocrats with a moat of money. Do not get discouraged and know that we are in this together. Have a great remainder of the weekend and watch the videos below to learn a little bit more about Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce! Check out their website, here.