The Globe and Mail attempts to identify dividend-paying companies with low variability in earnings and low historical beta in its Friday, May 21, edition. The Globe's Ian Tam writes in the Number Cruncher column that he looked for companies that have reasonable valuations, provide a sustainable yield and have low variability in earnings. Earnings variability is a key factor in Mr. Tam's strategy. Lower variability is desired for conservative stockpickers. Beta measures the historical sensitivity of a stock's price movement to the S&P/TSX composite index. Conservative stockpickers tend to like lower beta stocks since they will move less than the index when markets trend downward. Mr. Tam considered historical five-year price beta. He looked at the expected dividend yield. His picks had to have three-month positive estimate revisions. Variability of historical earnings was also a consideration. Qualifying companies have a dividend greater than 1 per cent and a dividend payout ratio less than 80 per cent. Mr. Tam recommends buying Emera, BCE, Bank of Nova Scotia, National Bank of Canada, Brookfield Asset Management, Shaw Communications, Keyera, Imperial Oil, Empire and Loblaw.