Sun Life Financial Inc. and Manulife Financial Corp. each offers a combination of solid earnings growth, ongoing share repurchases, and impressive dividend yields.
Top pick Yum Brands Inc. gives you sales growth, steady EPS growth, and a solid dividend
Nutrien Ltd. offers exposure to potash and nitrogen prices, a stable retail base and strong profitability.
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Tax shelters in Canada aim to reduce or eliminate your tax liability, they are great ways for Canadian investors to cut their tax bills.
In some ways, stock buyback benefits are better than dividends. In particular, they give you a tax-deferral option that you don’t get with cash dividends.
TRANSCANADA CORP. $42.69 (Toronto symbol TRP; Shares outstanding: 708.9 million; Market cap: $30.7 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.9%; www.transcanada.com) recently had its proposed Keystone XL pipeline rejected by the U.S. The line would have pumped oil sands crude to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

So far, TransCanada has spent $2.4 billion U.S. on this $8.0-billion U.S. project. However, it can use some of the line’s equipment on other projects, which would minimize a writedown.

Meanwhile, TransCanada has $35 billion of large-scale projects underway, as well as $13 billion in small- to medium sized developments set to come into service in the next three years.

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TELUS $42.20 (Toronto symbol T; Shares outstanding: 605.0 million; Market cap: $25.5 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.1%; www.telus.com) earned $398 million in the three months ended September 30, 2015, up 2.8% from $387 million a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 3.1%, to $0.66 from $0.64, on fewer shares outstanding. Revenue gained 4.2%, to $3.2 billion from $3.0 billion.

Telus continues to sign up high-speed Internet and TV customers, which is helping offset lower demand for traditional phone services.

The company now aims to improve its earnings by cutting 3% of its workforce. That should lower its annual costs by $100 million to $125 million.

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ISHARES MSCI BRAZIL INDEX FUND $23.14 (New York symbol EWZ; buy or sell through brokers) is an ETF that’s designed to track the Brazilian stock market.

Its top holdings are AmBev SA (beer and beverages), 10.6%; Cia Itau Unibanco Holding (banking), 10.2%; Petrobras (oil and gas), 6.8%; Banco Brandesco SA, 6.4%; BRF SA (food), 4.3%; Cielo SA (payment processing), 3.9%; Ultrapar SA (gas distribution and petrochemicals), 3.0%; and Itausa Investimentos SA (financial services), 2.8%. The ETF was launched on July 10, 2000. It has a 0.62% expense ratio.

Sluggish exports and low resource prices continue to slow Brazil’s economic growth. State-controlled oil and gas giant Petrobras is also in the midst of a huge corruption scandal. As well, president Dilma Rousseff, re-elected in late 2014, has yet to fulfill her promises of less growth-inhibiting government intervention in the economy.

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ISHARES MSCI AUSTRALIA ETF $19.43
(New York symbol EWA; buy or sell through brokers) is an ETF that holds the 71 largest Australian stocks. The fund’s top holdings include Commonwealth Bank of Australia, 12.1%; Westpac Banking Corp., 9.3%; National Australia Bank, 6.9%; Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, 6.7%; BHP Billiton, 5.4%; CSL Ltd., 4.2%; Wesfarmers, 3.8%; Woolworths Ltd., 2.7%; Macquarie Group, 2.2%; and Telstra Corp., 2.1%. The ETF’s industry breakdown consists of Financials, 53.0%; Materials, 14.4%; Consumer Staples, 7.8%; Industrials, 6.3%; Health Care, 6.0%; Energy, 3.9%; Telecommunications, 2.5%; Consumer Discretionary, 2.2%; and Utilities, 2.1%.

The iShares MSCI Australia ETF was launched on March 12, 1996. It has a 0.48% expense ratio. Australia benefits from its stable banking and political systems and is rich in natural resources. Low commodity prices have hurt the country’s economy, but its proximity to Asian markets with vast potential, including India and China, gives it strong long-term prospects.

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