investment management

The Bank of Canada recently raised its benchmark lending rate from 0.25% to 0.50%, its first increase since 2018. It has also signalled that more hikes are coming as it aims to lower Canada’s inflation rate to around 2% from the current 5.1%.


Generally, higher interest rates should help these three financial firms....

Business—both in Canada and internationally—remains strong for our two top Canadian insurance recommendations. These two stocks largely recovered all of the ground they lost in March 2020 with onset of the pandemic. We think they are now poised to move even higher....

Generally speaking, Canadians are blocked from buying mutual funds that are registered in the U.S. unless those funds are also registered with provincial securities commissions. (Moreover, some Canadian mutual funds are only available in a limited number of provinces.)


Investors in this country can, however, buy exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, listed on U.S....

INDIE SEMICONDUCTOR INC., $8.09, symbol INDI on Nasdaq, is a manufacturer of automotive semiconductors (computer chips) and software used in the sensors for advanced driver assistance systems, including LiDAR. Based in California, the company has offices in the U.S., Europe, Israel, Japan, and China.

LiDAR sensors on vehicles emit single particles of light, known as photons, that strike nearby objects such as cars, pedestrians, and trees....

Canada’s banking regulator recently lifted the freeze on bank and insurer dividend hikes it imposed at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, Manulife and Sun Life have now rewarded investors with special dividends. We expect recent acquisitions and other moves will also let them raise your regular dividend payments in 2022.


MANULIFE FINANCIAL CORP....

For most investors, Canada’s Big Five make up the bulk (if not all) of their Finance sector holdings. As the banks have expanded over the past few decades, owning them gives you exposure to a broad variety of financial services, including wealth management, brokerage and insurance.


Even so, we still feel most investors would benefit from adding specialized, non-bank Finance stocks, such as the three we analyze below....

Generally speaking, Canadians are blocked from buying mutual funds that are registered in the U.S. unless those funds are also registered with provincial securities commissions. (Moreover, some Canadian mutual funds are only available in a limited number of provinces.)


Investors in this country can, however, buy exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, listed on U.S....

GREAT-WEST LIFECO, $36.82, is still a hold. The insurer (Toronto symbol GWO; shares o/s: 928.4 million; Market cap: $34.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.8%; www.greatwestlifeco.com) recently announced a new alliance with Sagard Holdings, a Montreal-based wealth management firm.


Sagard will buy Colorado-based EverWest, a real estate investment management firm with $3.8 billion U.S....

Business—both in Canada and internationally—remains strong for our two top Canadian insurance recommendations. These two stocks have recovered all of the ground they lost in March 2020 with onset of the pandemic, and we think they are now poised to move even higher....

A: BlackRock Inc., $921.04, symbol BLK on New York (Shares outstanding: 152.2 million; Market cap: $140.8 billion; www.blackrock.com), is one of the world’s largest publicly traded investment management firms.

The company manages $9.5 trillion of assets on behalf of institutions and individuals through a variety of equity, fixed-income, cash-management, alternative-investment and advisory products.

BlackRock’s global ETF (exchange-traded fund) and stock-index investing business accounts for 63% of its overall assets under management (AUM)....