It’s hard to go wrong with banks. Especially Canadian banks. The banking industry in Canada is quite highly regulated and so bank stocks tend to avoid nearly all the risk that comes with owning some American banks. Also, let’s face it – when times are good banks make money and when times are bad banks make money. This month we’re recommending Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (TSE: CM) again (we recommended it back in October). GM, Ford and CIBC tied in our points system but it’s important to not have our exposure to any one industry too high so we passed on the two automakers.

CIBC is currently trading right at its 52-week high so it’s definitely not on sale and you might be thinking: “Don’t you always say to buy stocks on sale?” Yep, we do – usually. But price is only one thing to consider. CIBC is such an attractive stock that we are recommending it despite the fact that it is not on sale. We are, after all, dividend investors. That means we really like solid dividends and we really, REALLY like companies that increase their dividends regularly and often. Last time we recommended CIBC it was at $101 (3.7% below its, then, 52-week high) and it’s appreciated 8.7% since then. Not bad for a couple of months, right?

So, 52-week high isn’t everything. If a stock is well-priced it doesn’t really matter what the actual price is. Would we like to buy it for less? Of course! But we’re not going to pass on a great stock because it’s not on sale. We thought it was well-priced back then and we still think that. Why? The P/E is still an attractive 10.26 and the EPS is 10.71. For EPS, that puts CIBC 7th on the list of over 200 stocks we watch and the P/E is 14th on that list. All that and a 4.5% dividend! Did we mention the dividend announced for December offers a 3 cent increase (that’s a hike of 2.5%)?

If you’re not convinced on this pick, have a look at our October pick post (http://www.passivedividendincome.com/2016/10/01/octobers-pick/) for some more raving about CIBC.