In addition, Pat thinks then beginner investors should cultivate two important qualities: a healthy sense of skepticism and patience.
Investors should approach all investments with a healthy sense of skepticism. This can help keep you out of fraudulent stocks that masquerade as high-quality stocks. It will also keep you out of legally operated, but poorly managed, companies that promise more than they can possibly deliver.
If you are a new investor, you should also realize that losing patience can cause you to sell your best choices right before a big rise. All too often, investors buy a promising stock just as it enters a period of price stagnation. Even the best-performing stocks run into these unpredictable phases from time to time. They move mainly sideways in a wide range for months or years before their next big rise begins. (Stock brokers often refer to these stocks as “dead money.”)
If you lack patience, you run a big risk of selling your best choices in the midst of one of these phases, prior to the next big move upward. If you lose patience and sell, you are particularly likely to do so in the low end of the trading range, when stock prices have weakened and confidence in the stock has waned.
[text_ad use_category="18"]
A major holding is 50% of the Alliance gas line, which runs 3,000 kilometres between Chicago and Fort St. John, B.C. Veresen also owns the Alberta Ethane Gathering System, 42.7% of the Aux Sable natural gas liquids plant and the Hythe/Steeprock natural gas gathering and processing complex in the Cutbank Ridge region of Alberta and B.C. In the three months ended September 30, 2015, Veresen’s cash flow per share rose 31.6%, to $0.25 from $0.19 a year earlier.
In late 2014, Veresen paid $1.43 billion for 50% of the Ruby pipeline, which runs 1,100 kilometres from Wyoming to Oregon. Partner Kinder Morgan operates the line, which generates steady cash flow.
...
The company has now agreed to sell its Bodo project in eastern Alberta for $95 million. Including this deal, it has now sold $300 million worth of properties in 2015 and expects to reach its full-year goal of $600 million.
Pengrowth will use the proceeds to pay down its long-term debt, which stood at $1.9 billion on June 30, 2015. That’s a high 2.4 times its currently depressed market cap.
...
Refining—which gains from lower oil prices— supplies the remaining 65% of Cenovus’s revenue. The company ships its oil to its 50%-owned refineries in Illinois and Texas. (Phillips 66 owns the other 50%.)
In the three months ended September 30, 2015, the company’s production rose 5.7%, to 210,422 barrels a day from 199,089 a year earlier. However, lower oil prices cut its cash flow per share by 59.2%, to $0.53 from $1.30.
...
In the three months ended September 30, 2015, Imperial’s share of Kearl’s output was 192,000 barrels a day. That helped push its overall production up 25.7%, to 386,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day from 307,000 a year earlier.
However, lower oil prices cut its revenue by 25.9%, to $7.2 billion from $9.7 billion. Cash flow per share fell 32.9%, to $1.10 from $1.64. Imperial plans to keep expanding Kearl and Cold Lake, its two main oil sands properties. These projects will prosper when oil prices recover, and they should last for decades. Meanwhile, the company’s refineries cut its exposure to falling oil prices, as cheaper crude cuts the refineries’ input costs and increases their profit margins.
...
iShares CDN REIT’s expenses are 0.60% of its assets. The fund yields 5.5%.
The ETF’s largest holding is RioCan REIT at 20.1%, followed by H&R REIT (14.4%), Smart REIT (8.5%), Canadian Apartment Properties REIT (7.9%), Canadian REIT (7.7%), Allied Properties REIT (6.7%), Cominar REIT (6.1%), Dream Office REIT (5.6%), Boardwalk REIT (5.1%), Artis REIT (4.6%), Granite REIT (4.4%), Crombie REIT (2.5%), Dream Global REIT (2.4%), Pure Industrial REIT (2.1%) and Northern Property REIT (1.5%).
...
SUN LIFE FINANCIAL $44.67 (Toronto symbol SLF; Shares outstanding: 610.6 million; Market cap: $27.2 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 3.5%; www.sunlife.ca) sells life insurance, savings, retirement and pension products to individuals and corporations. The company has $812.6 billion of assets under management and mainly operates in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. It’s also expanding in Asia. In the three months ended September 30, 2015, Sun Life’s earnings per share rose 2.4%, to $0.86 from $0.84.
The company continues continues to expand in the U.S. At the same time, it’s cutting its risk by focusing on highly profitable niche markets with low capital reserve requirements.
...
In the three months ended June 30, 2015, Great-West’s earnings per share rose 6.5%, to $0.66 from $0.63 a year earlier.
In recent years, Great-West has bought firms in Ireland and the U.S. that have added new business lines and boosted its profits. Growth by acquisition can be risky, but the company’s large size lets it take advantage of opportunities with strong chances of success.
...
In the three months ended September 30, 2015, RioCan’s cash flow rose 2.3%, to $0.44 a unit from $0.43 a year earlier.
Revenue gained 4.5%, to $320.6 million from $306.9 million. The trust continues to do a good job of hanging onto tenants and renewing leases at higher rates: rents on renewals rose 8.6% in Canada and 9.8% in the U.S.
...
The Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF’s top holdings include Taiwan Semiconductor (Taiwan: computer chips), Tencent Holdings (China: Internet), China Mobile, China Construction Bank, Naspers Ltd. (South Africa: media), Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China, Hon Hai Precision Industry (Taiwan: electronics), Infosys (India: information technology) and Housing Development Finance (India: banking).
The $49.7-billion fund’s breakdown by country is as follows: China, 27.2%; Taiwan, 14.4%; India, 13.3%; South Africa, 9.4%; Brazil, 7.2%; Mexico, 5.5%; Russia, 4.5%; Malaysia, 4.0%; Thailand, 2.7%; Indonesia, 2.2%; Philippines, 1.9%; Poland, 1.8%; Turkey, 1.6%; and others, 4.3%.
...
The $48.1-billion Vanguard Growth ETF’s top holdings are Apple, Alphabet, Coca-Cola, Facebook, Visa, Home Depot, Comcast, Amazon.com, Gilead Sciences and Walt Disney Co. The fund’s breakdown by industry is as follows: Technology, 23.9%; Consumer Services, 22.2%; Health Care, 13.7%; Financials, 12.5%; Industrials, 11.9%; Consumer Goods, 10.1%; Oil and Gas, 4.0%; Materials, 1.3%; and Telecom Services, 0.3%.
Vanguard Growth ETF is a buy.
...