Bonds

Annuities have a lot of rigid terms that can work for or against you.

The main benefit of annuities is that they offer stable, predictable income. That may make them suitable for part of your assets, depending on your age, investment experience, the time you want to devote to your investments, your desire to leave an estate to your heirs …read more »

We generally advise against investing in bonds right now, because today’s low interest rates make them unattractive. That’s especially so in light of the potential rise in inflation that may follow the heavy deficit spending and rapid expansion of the money supply that is now underway.

However, if you need stable income and want to hold bonds, here are two bond …read more »

INVACARE CORP. $25 (New York symbol IVC; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 32.3 million; Market cap: $807.5 million; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.5; Dividend yield: 0.2%; WSSF Rating: Average) makes wheelchairs, motorized scooters and other mobility and home-care products.

The company may have to pay $12 million to $14 million a year in new taxes. That’s because the U.S. Senate recently …read more »

When you join my Inner Circle service, you get my investing advice on your own personal investment questions, plus you get to see what other Inner Circle members have asked, along with our answers.

So you can get a sense of how our service works, and how our investing advice might help your portfolio, I’d like to share two recent …read more »

MANITOBA TELECOM SERVICES INC. $35 (Toronto symbol MBT; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 64.7 million; Market cap: $2.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.2; Dividend yield: 7.4%; SI Rating: Average) has raised $200 million by selling new 10-year bonds that yield 5.625%.

This cash will help the company fund a new high-speed wireless network that it is building in Manitoba in …read more »

MANITOBA TELECOM SERVICES $34.38 (Toronto symbol MBT; Shares outstanding: 64.7 million; Market cap: $2.2 billion; SI Rating: Average) has issued $200 million of new 10-year bonds, yielding 5.625%.

The company will probably use part of the cash to help pay for a new high-speed wireless network that it is building in Manitoba in partnership with Rogers Communications Inc. (Toronto symbol RCI.B). …read more »

When you analyze a stock, it’s important to have an idea of how likely it is to survive a business slump and go on to prosper when economic growth resumes.

A number of factors can help you to do that. These include the interest rate on the company’s debt, how sensitive it is to economic cycles, its advantages and disadvantages …read more »

Investors are paying more attention to dividend yields (a company’s total annual dividends paid per share divided by the current stock price) as volatile stock markets continue to recover. Companies are responding by doing their best to maintain, or even increase, their dividend payments.

That’s good news for investors, because dividends are more dependable than capital gains as a source of …read more »

GREAT-WEST LIFECO INC. $24 (Toronto symbol GWO; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 944.7 million; Market cap: $22.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.7; Dividend yield: 5.1%; SI Rating: Above Average) is Canada’s largest insurance company, with $340.7 billion of assets under management. It also offers retirement planning and wealth-management services. Power Corp. owns 68.7% of Great-West’s shares. The company gets …read more »

When you join my Inner Circle service, you get to ask me your own personal investment questions, plus you get to see what other Inner Circle members have asked, along with our answers.

So you can see how the service works, and get a sense of how you could benefit from it, I’d like to share a recent member question …read more »