BCE Inc.

Innergex Renewable Energy, $11.03, symbol INE on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 100.9 million; Market cap: $1.1 billion; www.innergex.com), is a recommendation of our Canadian Wealth Advisor newsletter. We place Innergex in the Utilities sector, a broad area that includes telecoms, pipelines, power generators and so on. The company generates electricity, but it focuses on renewable energy, including hydroelectric plants, wind farms and solar power. That puts it in something of a niche category among utilities that includes stocks like Algonquin Power & Utilities, $9.73, symbol AQN on Toronto, and Northland Power, $16.99, symbol NPI on Toronto....

Meta Description: Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) give investors a low-fee way to match market indexes, and these two ETFs are the cream of the Canadian crop.

BCE INC., $53.88, Toronto symbol BCE, reported higher-than-expected quarterly results this week. In the three months ended March 31, 2015, the company’s overall earnings rose 12.6%, to $705 million from $626 million a year earlier. But per-share profits gained just 3.7%, to $0.84 from $0.81, on more shares outstanding. These figures exclude unusual items, such as costs to integrate BCE’s November 2014 purchase of the 56% of Bell Aliant it didn’t already own. On that basis, the latest earnings beat the consensus estimate of $0.79 a share....

BCE’s wireless revenue continues to grow steadily, rising 26.5% from $4.9 billion in 2010 to $6.2 billion in 2014. At the same time, wireline (land line) revenue has dropped from $10.7 billion to $10.0 billion. That’s because many traditional land line phone customers have switched to wireless. However, BCE’s Fibe Internet TV is now spurring new demand for its fibre optic land lines. This is a big growth market for the company. BCE INC. $54.15 (Toronto symbol BCE; Shares outstanding: 841.9 million; Market cap: $45.6 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.8%; www.bce.ca) is Canada’s largest provider of telephone, Internet and wireless services. It also offers satellite and Internet TV across the country. In the three months ended March 31, 2015, BCE’s earnings per share rose 3.7%, to $0.84 from $0.81 a year earlier. Revenue increased 2.8%, to $5.2 billion from $5.1 billion....

Shaw Communications, $27.49, symbol SJR.B on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 464.7 million; Market cap: $13.0 billion; www.shaw.ca), is one of Canada’s largest cable TV operators. It has 1.9 million basic cable subscribers (mostly in Western Canada), as well as 854,389 satellite customers through its ownership of Shaw Direct. The company also provides high-speed Internet to 1.9 million clients and telephone services to 1.4 million. In September 2014, Shaw completed its $1.2-billion purchase of Colorado-based ViaWest, a privately held operator of data centres, cloud storage and information technology services. ViaWest has 27 data centres in the western U.S. In the three months ended February 28, 2015, Shaw’s revenue rose 4.9%, to $1.34 billion from $1.27 billion a year earlier. Earnings per share fell 26.1%, to $0.34 from $0.46, mostly due to one-time costs related to a restructuring of its customer service call centres that included cutting 1,600 employees. Cash flow per share fell 1.3%, to $0.77 from $0.78....

SUN LIFE FINANCIAL $39.03 (Toronto symbol SLF; Shares outstanding: 612.7 million; Market cap: $24.0 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 3.7%; www.sunlife.ca) sells life insurance, savings, retirement and pension products to individuals and corporations.

Sun Life has $734.4 billion of assets under management. It mainly operates in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K., but it continues to expand in Asia.

In 2013, it sold its riskier, money-losing U.S. annuity business, which sells products that guarantee minimum long-term returns even if markets fall.

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ISHARES CANADIAN SELECT DIVIDEND INDEX ETF $23.80 (Toronto symbol XDV; buy or sell through brokers; ca.ishares.com) holds 30 of the highestyielding Canadian stocks. Its selections are based on dividend growth, yield and payout ratio. The weight of any one stock is limited to 10% of the ETF’s assets. The fund’s MER is 0.55%, and it yields 4.2%.

The fund’s top holdings are CIBC, 8.4%; Bank of Montreal, 6.3%; Royal Bank, 6.1%; Bank of Nova Scotia, 5.3%; BCE, 5.1%; IGM Financial, 4.7%; Ag Growth International, 4.4%; Laurentian Bank of Canada, 4.3%; TransCanada Corp., 4.2%; and TD Bank, 4.0%.

The ETF holds 53.5% of its assets in financial stocks. The top Canadian finance stocks have sound prospects. However, if you invest in this ETF, be sure to adjust the rest of your portfolio so it won’t be overly concentrated in the financial sector.

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ISHARES S&P/TSX 60 INDEX ETF $21.90 (Toronto symbol XIU; buy or sell through brokers; ca.ishares.com) 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 are just 0.17% of assets.

The index mostly consists of high-quality companies. However, it must ensure that all sectors are represented, so it holds a few we wouldn’t include.

The index’s top holdings are Royal Bank, 7.8%; TD Bank, 7.1%; Valeant Pharmaceuticals, 5.6%; Bank of Nova Scotia, 5.4%; CN Railway, 4.8%; Suncor Energy, 3.6%; Enbridge, 3.6%; Bank of Montreal, 3.5%; BCE, 3.2%; Manulife Financial, 3.1%; Canadian Natural Resources, 2.9%; Trans- Canada Corp., 2.8%; Brookfield Asset Management, 2.7%; CIBC, 2.6%; and CP Rail, 2.5%.

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When you feel the urge to sell a stock that’s been a strong performer, your “itchy trigger finger” could erase bigger gains in the future.

Exchange traded funds (ETFs) are set up to mirror the performance of a stock market index or sub-index. They hold a more or less fixed selection of securities that represent the holdings that go into the calculation of the index or sub-index. ETFs trade on stock exchanges, just like stocks. That’s different from mutual funds, which you can only buy at the end of the day at a price that reflects the fund’s value at the close of trading. Prices of ETFs are quoted in newspaper stock tables and online. You pay brokerage commissions to buy and sell them, but their low management fees give them a cost advantage over most mutual funds....