Bonds
Canada’s big five banks are still dealing with high loan losses, but they have enough capital to absorb them without having to issue more shares. This should also let them keep providing above-average dividend yields.
ROYAL BANK OF CANADA $56 (Toronto symbol RY; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.4 billion; Market cap: $78.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.1; SI Rating: …read more »
TECK RESOURCES LTD. $28 (Toronto symbol TCK.B; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 588.5 million; Market cap: $16.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.6; SI Rating: Extra Risk) now gets about half of its revenue from metallurgical coal, which is used for making steel. That’s because Teck bought Fording Canadian Coal Trust for $13.6 billion last October. Fording owns six open-pit …read more »
As investors near retirement, their advisors often recommend that they move a larger part of their portfolios from stocks and mutual funds to bonds and other fixed-return investments.
To some extent, this is an understandable retirement investing strategy, since bonds provide steady income and a guarantee to repay the principal at maturity.
Bonds will lower the long-term returns that are key …read more »
TFSAs let you earn investment income — including interest, dividends and capital gains — tax free.
You could only invest $5,000 this year to start your TFSA. However, you gain an additional $5,000 of contribution room (indexed to inflation and rounded to the nearest $500 on a yearly basis) every year, plus you get to carry forward unused contribution room from …read more »
FAIRFAX FINANCIAL HOLDINGS $364.55 (Toronto symbol FFH: SI Rating: Average) (416-367- 2612; www.fairfax.ca; Shares outstanding: 16.8 million; Market cap: $6.1 billion) is a financial-services holding company with assets of $27.9 billion. Fairfax engages in insurance, reinsurance and investment management. Prem Watsa is the company’s chairman and founder. Fairfax trades at a high price, but you can buy an odd lot …read more »
ABERDEEN ASIA-PACIFIC INCOME $5.90 (Toronto symbol FAP; Shares outstanding: 52.6 million; Market cap: $304.3 million; CWA Rating: Income) is a closed-end fund that mainly invests in Australian debt instruments. It also holds U.S.-dollar-denominated Asian and Latin American bonds, and bonds denominated in the currencies of countries from these regions. Right now, it has 24.6% of its assets in Asian and …read more »
A number of months ago, a friend’s son was considering joining his employer’s group RRSP, and his father asked us to glance through the list of mutual funds the son had to choose from.
We went through the list and treated it the same way we do when we consider new mutual funds to follow in our Canadian Wealth Advisor …read more »
Many investors consider investing in alternative investments, like art. It’s an interesting area that we’ve talked about from time to time with my Inner Circle members.
Our view is that you can’t really invest in art. An investment is something that may one day produce income — dividends from stocks, interest from bonds, rent from real estate, and so on. Art …read more »
