Latest Stock Advice
It is important to note that some types of investments provide more security than others. Investors seeking safe investment options should look for well-established companies with hidden assets among other key characteristics.
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.
The Bank of Canada cut its key interest rate to 0.50% from 0.75% in July 2015. The move came after the bank dropped its 2015 growth forecast for the Canadian economy to 1.1% from 2.0%. The cut partly reflects falling prices for oil and other commodities. Even so, the long-term outlook is for higher interest rates. That’s because heavy deficit spending and the expansion of the money supply in the past few years make higher inflation more likely. We continue to advise against investing in bonds right now. That’s because today’s low interest rates make bonds unattractive, and rising rates would push down their future value....
BCE INC. $52.87 (Toronto symbol BCE; Shares outstanding: 848.1 million; Market cap: $44.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 5.0%; www.bce.ca) has sold its 15% stake in the Globe and Mail newspaper to Woodbridge Co., the private firm controlled by the Thomson family. Woodbridge now owns 100% of the Globe. The company didn’t say how much it received, but the sale will let it focus on its main media businesses, including CTV Television, specialty channels, radio stations and their related websites. In the second quarter of 2015, the media division’s earnings rose 2.4% from a year earlier and accounted for 9.8% of BCE’s total....
MANITOBA TELECOM $28.74 (Toronto symbol MBT; Shares outstanding: 78.9 million; Market cap: $2.3 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 4.5%; www.mts.ca) has acquired AWS-1 radio frequencies (or spectrum) in Manitoba from rival wireless carrier WIND Mobile. The $45-million purchase will boost the speed and capacity of the company’s wireless networks. Manitoba Telecom is a hold....
PENGROWTH ENERGY $1.64 (Toronto symbol PGF; Shares o/s: 539.7 million; Market cap: $892.2 million; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 2.4%; www.pengrowth.com) now plans to spend $190 million to $210 million on its oil and gas properties in 2015, down from its earlier forecast of $220 million to $240 million. The company also wants to sell $600 million worth of less important assets. It will use the cash to pay down its debt of $1.9 billion, which is a high 1.9 times its market cap. Pengrowth continues to benefit from its hedging program, which locks in selling prices above today’s low oil and gas prices. However, to conserve cash, it’s cutting its dividend to $0.01 per quarter from $0.02 per month. The new annual rate of $0.04 yields 2.4%....