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CANADIAN UTILITIES LTD. (Toronto symbols CU $35 (class A non-voting) and CU.X $35 (class B voting); Income Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 125.6 million; Market cap: $4.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.6; SI Rating: Above Average) distributes electricity and natural gas in Alberta. It also operates power plants in other parts of Canada, the U.K. and Australia. ATCO Ltd. (Toronto symbols ACO.X and ACO.Y) owns 52.3% of Canadian Utilities. The company is evaluating a proposal to merge its Frontec division with ATCO’s Structures business. Both perform similar functions, including building temporary structures, airfields and communications systems for clients in the resource and construction industries. Canadian Utilities did not say how much this move would save it, but it plans to make a decision by the end of the second quarter. Meanwhile, Canadian Utilities earned $145.4 million, or $1.16 a share, in the three months ended March 31, 2009. That’s 3.3% less than the $150.3 million, or $1.20 a share, it earned a year earlier. If you disregard unusual items, including an insurance benefit stemming from an unplanned outage at its U.K. power plant in the year-earlier quarter, its earnings per share fell 1.7%. This plant is now operating normally, and that helped increase the company’s revenue by 3.8%, to $768.6 million from $740.6 million....

TRANSALTA CORP. $20 (Toronto symbol TA; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 197.8 million; Market cap: $4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.3; SI Rating: Average) operates over 50 electrical-power plants in Canada, the United States and Australia. TransAlta uses coal to generate 60% of its electricity, and owns three coal mines (two in Alberta and one in Washington State). This helps keep its costs down. Natural gas fuels 30% of the company’s electricity production, and hydroelectric and other sources account for 10%. This heavy dependence on coal has made TransAlta a target for environmentalists. To comply with tougher carbon-emission regulations, the company has teamed up with TransCanada Corp. to capture and store carbon emitted from TransAlta’s coal-fired power plants. The project could cost $400 million. The federal government plans to contribute $20 million to $30 million, and the two companies will probably split the rest....

FORTIS INC. $23 (Toronto symbol FTS; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 169.8 million; Market cap: $3.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.9; SI Rating: Above Average) generates and distributes electricity in five Canadian provinces. It also owns power plants in the U.S. and Caribbean, as well as hotels and commercial real estate in Atlantic Canada.

Fortis is still benefiting from its July 2007 purchase of Terasen Inc., which distributes natural gas in B.C. In the three months ended March 31, 2009, Fortis’s revenue rose 4.8%, to $1.2 billion from $1.1 billion.

Terasen, driven by higher rates and increased natural gas use during the winter, accounted for 60% of this. Earnings rose 1.1%, to $92 million from $91 million. However, earnings per share fell 5.5%, to $0.52 from $0.55, on more shares outstanding. Gains at Fortis’s Canadian power plants offset a 43% drop at its Caribbean operations, as colder-than-usual weather and the recession hurt tourism. (The Caribbean power plants account for 7% of Fortis’s revenue.) Terasen’s earnings were flat.

Fortis is taking advantage of low real-estate prices to add to its properties division, which generates 4% of its revenue. In April, it paid $7 million for the 214-room Holiday Inn Select hotel in Windsor, Ontario. Despite the recession, this division is maintaining an occupancy rate of 96.0%, down slightly from 96.6% a year earlier.

The company has asked regulators for permission to raise rates at its Canadian operations this year (this includes Terasen). However, continued weakness at Fortis’s Caribbean operations will probably weigh on this year’s earnings. The stock trades at 15.3 times the company’s projected 2009 earnings of $1.50 a share. That’s a higher p/e than other utilities, but reasonable in light of Fortis’s high-quality operations and geographic diversity. The $1.04 dividend yields 4.5%.

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EMERA INC. $20 (Toronto symbol EMA; Income Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 112.3 million; Market cap: $2.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.7; SI Rating: Average) generates and distributes electricity to roughly 600,000 customers in Nova Scotia and Bangor, Maine. Over the past few years, Emera has steadily expanded into new areas in order to cut its reliance on Nova Scotia, which still accounts for 85% of its revenue. It owns 12.9% of the Maritimes & Northeast natural-gas pipeline and 50% of a hydroelectric facility in Massachusetts. Emera has also expanded into the Caribbean region. In January 2007, it paid $22 million for 19% of the main power utility in St. Lucia. Last September, it bought 25% of Grand Bahama Power Company for $41 million. In April 2009, Emera formed a partnership with Algonquin Power Income Fund (Toronto symbol APF.UN), which owns or has interests in 41 hydroelectric facilities in Canada and the United States. Emera will pay $27.6 million for a 9.9% stake in Algonquin, with an option to buy an additional 5% of the fund over the next two years....

RBC CANADIAN DIVIDEND FUND $37.65 (RBC Funds, P.O. Box 7500, Station A, Toronto, Ontario M5W 1P9. 1-800-463-3863; Web site: www.royalbank.com. No load — deal directly with the bank) invests in well-established, dividend-paying companies. In fact, it invests solely in common stocks. That’s why, despite the fund’s name, we rate it Conservative rather than Income. The $7.1-billion RBC Canadian Dividend Fund’s top stock holdings are: Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of Nova Scotia, TD Bank, Manulife Financial, Brookfield Asset Management, EnCana, Bank of Montreal, TransCanada Corp. and Power Corp. RBC Canadian Dividend is a Conservative buy.

GUARDIAN MONTHLY HIGH INCOME II FUND $9.16 (CWA Rating: Income) (BMO Guardian Group of Funds, Commerce Court West, Suite 4100, P.O. Box 201, Toronto, Ontario M5L 1E8. 1-800-668-5613; Web site: www.bmoguardianfunds.com. Available from brokers) is a fund we rate as Income. It invests in royalty and income trusts and real estate investment trusts (REITs). With assets of $479.5 million, this fund is large enough to diversify widely. It also focuses on stable REITs and high-quality, long-lived resource trusts. The fund’s top holdings are: Crescent Point Energy Trust, Canadian Oil Sands, RioCan REIT, ARC Energy, Boardwalk REIT, Keyera Facilities Income Fund, BFI Canada, Vermilion Energy Trust, CML Healthcare Income and Enerplus Resources. Guardian Monthly High Income II pays a $0.06 monthly distribution, for an 7.9% yield....

TD CANADIAN SMALL-CAP EQUITY FUND $21.56 (CWA Rating: Aggressive) (TD Asset Management, P.O. Box 7500, Station A, Toronto, Ontario M5W 1P9. 1-800-386-3757; Web site: www.tdcanadatrust.ca. No load — deal directly with the bank) is a fund we rate as Aggressive. The fund invests in small to medium-sized companies that its managers feel are undervalued or offer strong growth potential as the economy improves. These firms are mainly located in Canada, but the fund invests in other countries, as well. Its top 10 holdings are: RuggedCom Inc., Eldorado Gold, Red Back Mining, Celtic Exploration, Addax Petroleum Corporation, Industrial Alliance Insurance & Financial Inc., TMX Group Inc., Progress Energy Resources, Cogeco Cable and Aecon Group. TD Canadian Small Cap Equity Fund stands out among small-cap funds because it focuses on well-established companies with strong management and prominent positions in their industries. It also invests in Canadian stocks. The riskiest small-cap funds invest in less-regulated overseas markets....

IVY CANADIAN FUND $20.73 (CWA Rating: Conservative) (Mackenzie Financial Corp., 150 Bloor Street West, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3B5. 1-800-387-0780; Web site: www.mackenziefinancial.com. Load fund — available from brokers) is a good example of a Conservative fund. Ivy Canadian’s managers keep risk low by investing in well-established, high-quality stocks. The fund also invests in politically stable areas, with 47.3% of its portfolio in Canadian stocks, 27.8% in the U.S., 5.1% in Switzerland, 4.1% in the U.K. and 4% in France. Moreover, Ivy Canadian has $1.9 billion in assets, so it can easily meet redemption requests without having to sell parts of its holdings. Ivy Canadian Fund holds just 29 stocks. The top 10 are: Thomson Reuters, Shoppers Drug Mart, Imperial Oil, Tim Hortons, Becton Dickinson, McDonald’s Corp., Nestle SA, Colgate-Palmolive, Bank of Nova Scotia and Reckitt Benckiser. The fund is well-balanced among industry segments, with consumer staples making up the largest part of its portfolio, at 35.5%. Ivy Canadian holds 11% of its assets in cash. Ivy Canadian Fund is a Conservative buy.

RENAISSANCE GLOBAL HEALTH CARE FUND $13.79 (CWA Rating: Speculative) (CIBC Asset Management, 1500 University Street, Suite 800, Montreal, Quebec. Web site: www.renaissanceinvestments.com. Available from brokers) invests in companies from across the health-care industry. These may include pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms, and companies that design and make medical equipment. The $579-million fund’s managers look at a firm’s financial strength, the quality of its management and whether it is developing new products that could fuel future growth. The fund’s top holdings include Schering-Plough Corp., UnitedHealth Group, Merck & Company, Sanofi-Aventis, Abbott Laboratories, Wyeth, Forest Laboratories, Shionogi & Co. and Eli Lilly & Co....

ISHARES MCSI CANADA INDEX FUND $20.94 (American Exchange symbol EWC; buy or sell through brokers) is like a market-cap-based index fund, but its managers tinker with the index-fund formula in order to try and improve performance. They do this using their proprietary Morgan Stanley Capital International Canada Index. The U.S.-based fund also has to work around Canadian foreign-ownership restrictions. iShares MCSI Canada Index Fund is managed by Barclays Global Investors and has an MER of 0.52%. If you want to own a Canadian index fund, you should buy the iShares CDN LargeCap 60. You’ll pay about a third of the management fees. We don’t recommend iShares MCSI Canada Index Fund.

NASDAQ-100 TRUST SHARES $35.03 (Nasdaq Exchange symbol QQQQ; buy or sell through brokers), or “Qubes,” hold the stocks that represent the Nasdaq 100 Index, which is made up of the 100 largest, most heavily traded stocks on the Nasdaq exchange. The index contains firms from a number of major industries, including computer hardware and software, telecommunications, retail/wholesale trade and biotechnology. It does not contain financial companies. The shares’ expenses are about 0.20% of assets. The index’s 10 highest weighted stocks are: Apple, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Google, Cisco, Intel, Research in Motion, Gilead Sciences, Oracle and Teva Pharmceuticals....

DIAMONDS TRUST SHARES $85.20 (American Exchange symbol DIA; buy or sell through brokers) hold the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The fund’s top 10 holdings are: IBM, Exxon Mobil, Chevron Corp., 3M, Procter & Gamble, McDonald’s Corp., Johnson & Johnson, Wal-Mart Stores, United Technologies and Coca-Cola. The fund’s expenses are about 0.17% of its assets. Diamonds Trust Shares are a buy.

S&P DEPOSITORY RECEIPTS $92.14 (American Exchange symbol SPY; buy or sell through brokers) are commonly called “Spiders.” The fund holds the stocks in the S&P 500 Index, which consists of 500 major U.S. stocks that are chosen based on their market share, liquidity and industry group.

The index’s 10 highest-weighted stocks are: Exxon Mobil, Procter & Gamble, General Electric, AT&T, Johnson & Johnson, Chevron, Microsoft, Cisco Systems, JP Morgan Chase & Co....

ISHARES CDN LARGECAP 60 INDEX FUND $15.54 (Toronto symbol XIU; buy or sell through a broker) (units split 4-for-1 in August 2008) is a good, low-fee way to buy the top stocks on the TSX. The units are made up of stocks that represent the S&P/TSX 60 Index, which consists of the 60 largest, most heavily traded stocks on the exchange. Expenses on the units are just 0.17% of assets. Most of the stocks in the index are high-quality companies. However, as it must ensure that all sectors are represented, the index holds a few we wouldn’t include, such as Biovail Corp. The index’s top holdings are: Royal Bank of Canada, 7.2%; EnCana Corporation, 5.2%; Research in Motion, 5.2%; TD Bank, 4.9%; Bank of Nova Scotia, 4.2%; Manulife Financial, 4.0%; Potash Corporation, 3.9%; Canadian Natural Resources, 3.7%; Suncor Energy, 3.7%; Barrick Gold, 3.7%; Goldcorp, 2.9%; Canadian National Railway, 2.8%; Bank of Montreal, 2.6%; and CIBC, 2.5%....

GEORGE WESTON LTD. $63.25 (Toronto symbol WN; Shares outstanding: 129.1 million; Market cap: $8.2 billion; SI Rating: Above Average) operates in two distinct divisions: Weston Foods, which includes 31 fresh and frozen bakery plants in Canada, and seven plants in the U.S. producing frozen-baked goods, as well as biscuits, cookies, ice-cream cones and wafers; and a 62% interest in Loblaw Companies, Canada’s largest grocery-store operator and a leading seller of general merchandise, drugs and financial services. Late last year, Weston sold its Neilson Dairy subsidiary to Saputo Inc. for $467 million. Earlier this year, the company sold its U.S. fresh bread and baked goods business for $2.5 billion U.S. In the three months ended December 31, 2008, Weston’s revenue rose 11.4%, to $8.1 billion from $7.2 billion a year earlier. Driven by a $281-million gain on the Neilson sale, earnings more than tripled, to $356 million, or $2.68 a share, from $110 million, or $0.75 a share. However, if you exclude all one-time items, earnings per share still rose 45.2%, to $0.61 from $0.42. Loblaw has undergone a significant restructuring in recent years, and it is now helping Weston’s results....

INTERNATIONAL ROAD DYNAMICS $1.25 (Toronto symbol IRD; SI Rating: Speculative) (306-653-6600; www.ird.ca; Shares outstanding: 14 million; Market cap: $17.4 million) is a highway traffic management technology company that specializes in supplying products and systems to the global intelligent transportation systems industry. These include automated toll-road systems, automated truck weigh station systems, WIM (Weigh-in-Motion) systems, advanced traffic control, driver-management systems and data-collection systems. In addition to products and systems, International Road Dynamics also provides long-term service and maintenance. International Road is based in Saskatchewan, but has sales and service offices throughout the United States and overseas. Private corporations, transportation agencies and highway authorities around the world use International Road’s products and systems to manage and protect their highway infrastructures....

We think investors will profit most — and with the least risk — by buying shares of well-established, dividend-paying companies with strong business prospects. These are companies that have strong positions in a healthy industry. They also have strong management that will make the right moves to remain competitive in a changing marketplace. A company with a long-term record of paying dividends gives investors a measure of safety. Dividends, after all, are much more stable than earnings projections. More important, dividends are impossible to fake — either the company has the cash to pay them or it doesn’t. That’s not to say there won’t be surprises that affect every company in a particular industry. But well-established, dividend-paying stocks have the asset size and financial clout — including solid balance sheets and strong cash flow — to weather market downturns or changing industry conditions....

Should you stick with your current stock broker or switch to a discounter? To answer that question, you need to consider your own experience and abilities, and those of your stock broker. A good stock broker (one who is experienced, knowledgeable, and oriented toward the long term) is worth the top commissions you are likely to pay. For instance, suppose your average commission is 2% and you replace one-third of your portfolio every year (both figures are on the high side). In this case, you’d pay 1.34% of your portfolio’s value each year in commissions. That’s less than the 2% to 3% management fee on a typical mutual fund....

Asset allocation funds are mutual funds that distribute their assets in accordance with all investors’ goals (consistent returns, diversified investments, etc.). Unlike balanced funds, they can shift their portfolio allocations between stocks, bonds and cash in order to capitalize on perceived investment opportunities in any one of those classes. If a fund’s name includes the term “asset allocation,” it means the fund’s managers, or sponsors, feel that they can enhance returns and/or reduce risks by switching back and forth among stocks, bonds and cash equivalents, often using a so-called “black box” – a computer program that makes trading decisions based on a pre-selected set of rules for interpreting financial statistics. For example, if the managers feel that the bond market is depressed and poised for an upswing, they may overweight the portfolio in fixed-income investments for a few months to take advantage of the change. Computer modelling makes this investment approach sound scientific, but it is just as likely to detract from a portfolio’s long-term return as it is to add to it....

When the economy is volatile, there seems to be more advertisements for forex (foreign exchange) investment products, or strategies for making forex investments. Dealing in forex investments through foreign currency futures or options can make sense for a business that has been forced to take on unacceptable currency risk. Futures and options let the business pass that risk on to speculators who wish to accept it. That’s the textbook explanation for the existence of futures and options. Textbooks often fail to emphasize that most speculators who succumb to the lure offutures or potions wind up losing money. It doesn’t matter if they trade foreign currency or a traditional commodity, such as wheat. In the end, they almost always wind up losing....

These are difficult times for income-seeking investors. Bonds yield around half of what they did 10 years ago, yet more and more investors are nearing retirement, when many pay close attention to investment income. Many also see income as a sign of investment quality. These factors have kept up investor interest in income trusts.

Despite Ottawa’s plan to start taxing trust distributions in 2011, income trusts should continue to pay above-average yields for years to come. Unfortunately, however, high current yields on the majority of trusts obscure their drawbacks.

Income seekers may mistakenly assume that yearly distributions on income trusts will hold steady, like interest on a bond, or rise, like dividends on a stock. But, in the long term, many trust distributions are apt to dwindle, or abruptly halt. That’s because many trusts own so-called “cash cow” businesses. These are businesses that can be milked for their cash flow for many years, but are likely to stagnate or stumble as the economy changes and competition grows.

Other income trusts borrowed to invest in cyclical industries. When the cycle turns downward, as it is now, profits and cash flow will evaporate overnight.

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Dividend reinvestment plans (or DRIPs) are plans offered by some companies that let shareholders receive additional shares in lieu of cash dividends. DRIPs can be a good way to slowly build wealth over a long period, for a number of reasons. First, they eliminate the nuisance of receiving small cash dividend payments. Second, some of them let you reinvest your dividends in additional shares at a 5% discount to current prices. Third, many dividend reinvestment plans also allow optional commission-free share purchases on a monthly or quarterly basis. To participate in these plans, you have to buy one or more shares of a company’s stock, and get a certificate registered in your name. Share registration (through a traditional or discount broker) can cost $40 or more per company. Then you call or write the company to ask for the form you fill out to enroll in the plan....

Capital gains tax must be paid on the profit that comes from the sale of an asset. An asset can be a security, such as a stock or a bond, or a fixed asset, such as land, buildings, equipment or other possessions. Let’s look at an example. Say you purchased 1,000 shares of TD Bank at $20 per share many years ago, and when it reaches about $40 per share, you decide to sell. Your proceeds from the sale are $40,000 ($40 per share multiplied by 1,000 shares) and your cost (the cost of purchase) is $20,000 ($20 per share multiplied by 1,000 shares). This means that your profit on the sale, also known as your capital gain, is $20,000. [ofie_ad]...

You hear a lot of comparisons these days between the current market downturn and the 1929 stock market crash. That’s mainly due to a lack of comparables. The recent market downturn is the worst since World War II. However, nothing since then has come close to the crash that lasted into the 1930s. When investors ask how bad it can get, we need to qualify our answer. If governments around the world were doing nothing to counter the crisis – or, worse, were doing all the wrong things as they did in the wake of the 1929 stock market crash – then the crisis could get a lot worse. However, our view is that they are taking the kinds of steps that will contain the crisis and eventually restore liquidity to the banking system. That didn’t happen after the 1929 stock market crash....

Many aggressive investors find stock option investing hard to resist. However, the vast majority of investors lose money with options. An option is a contract between a buyer and a seller that is based on an underlying security, usually a stock. The buyer pays the seller a fee, or premium, for certain rights to the stock. In exchange for the premium, the seller assumes certain obligations. Options trade through stock exchanges, and each options contract is for 100 shares of a particular company. So one contract quoted at $5 will cost you $500 (before commissions). Each contract has an expiration date, which gives it a limited life span (usually less than nine months). The strike price (or exercise price), is the price at which the buyer can exercise their rights under the contract. There are two types of options:...