2 TSX Giants to Buy for Decades of Growth and Dividends

One of the biggest decisions investors continually consider when building a high-quality portfolio TSX equities, the question is whether we should focus more on growth or dividends. And while there are certainly top stocks that strictly offer one or the other, the very best stocks to buy and hold for the long term often offer some variation of both.

For a stock to even pay a dividend, it must be well established and have a track record of consistent profitability. That alone makes dividend stocks safer and more reliable than many risky growth stocks that aren’t yet making a profit.

But at the same time, while you want large, established companies in your portfolio, you still want companies with decades of growth potential in the future.

That’s why dividend growth stocks are some of the best long-term investments you can buy. These are companies that are reliable and consistently profitable while continually expanding their operations.

While you never have to worry about short-term stock price movement, established stocks that consistently increase their dividends give you even more confidence in their long-term capital gains potential, as those consistent dividend increases tend to fuel steady stock price growth over time.

Therefore, as long as they continue to perform well and grow their businesses, they are among the best and easiest TSX stocks to buy and hold for decades of dividends and growth.

So if you have money you want to put to work today, here are two giants that are incredibly reliable, yet still have a lot of growth potential ahead.

One of the best dividend growth stocks on the TSX

There’s a reason why Enbridge (TSX:ENB) is one of the largest companies on the TSX and one of the most popular stocks among Canadian investors. It’s one of the very best dividend growth stocks that investors can buy and hold for decades.

As with any high-quality investment, the main reason why it is such an ideal long-term investment is due to its core activities. Enbridge not only provides services essential to the North American economy, but it is also one of the most dominant players in the industry, operating in an industry with enormous barriers to entry.

Furthermore, it owns tons of long-lived assets and earns most of its revenue from stable contracts, allowing it to generate significant and predictable cash flow every quarter. Therefore, the company can continue to invest in expanding its business to ensure future dividend growth, while still returning cash to investors every quarter.

So it not only offers a convincing one dividend yield of about 5.6%, but it has also increased that dividend every year for three decades.

And because Enbridge is not only essential today, but also positions itself for the future with increasing investments in clean energy, it is easily one of the best dividend growth stocks on the TSX to own for decades to come.

A top defensive growth stock to buy and hold for decades

Besides Enbridge, there’s another incredibly reliable TSX giant that offers both an attractive dividend yield and tons of long-term growth potential. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (TSX:BIP.US).

Brookfield is a lot like Enbridge in many ways. First, it has a vast and diversified portfolio of key infrastructure assets. However, Brookfield’s portfolio is globally diversified and increasingly investing in data with assets such as telecom towers, fiber optic cables and data centers.

However, what really makes Brookfield one of the best dividend growth stocks on the TSX to buy and hold for decades is its disciplined investment strategy and long track record of success.

Brookfield consistently sells mature assets for which it can command a premium, then recycles that money into new opportunities that it believes are undervalued, could benefit greatly from its expertise, or both.

That’s what makes it possible to offer a 4.9% yield today, along with attractive capital gains and dividend growth potential for decades to come.