manulife financial

IVY GROWTH AND INCOME FUND $21.37 (CWA Rating: Conservative) (Mackenzie Financial Corp., 150 Bloor St. West, Toronto, Ont. M5S 3B5. 1-800-387-0780; Web site: www.mackenziefinancial.com. Load fund — available from brokers) is a balanced fund, holding a mixture of stocks, bonds and cash. The fund has returned 5.6% annually for the 10 years. It lost 6.6% over the last year. The fund’s MER is 2.10%. The fund’s top stock holdings are Shoppers Drug Mart, PepsiCo, Manulife Financial, Enbridge, Thomson Corp., McDonald’s Corp., Becton Dickinson (U.S. medical technology), Sun Life Financial, TD Bank, Walgreen Co. (U.S. pharmacies) and Diageo plc (UK alcoholic beverages). This $2.5 billion fund holds 24% of its assets in bonds. Interest rates on bonds are now under 5% annually in Canada. That’s the total return that a bond can provide, from today until it matures. However, bonds leave investors at the mercy of inflation, which shrinks the purchasing power of all fixed-return investments. In fact, an upsurge in inflation could wipe out all returns on bonds, and some of their principal besides....

At one time, mutual funds within a particular ‘fund family’ often shared some key investment characteristic, such as a conservative or aggressive investment approach, or a stress on value as opposed to growth. However, due to corporate mergers and takeovers in the mutual-funds industry, and more aggressive marketing, a fund’s membership in a fund family now has little bearing on its investment approach or appeal as an investment. Below, for instance, we analyse five funds from the Ivy Group. (Note that Ivy is now part of Mackenzie Financial, which in turn is part of IGM Financial. The contact information listed for Ivy Growth and Income also applies to the other four.)...

DUNDEEWEALTH INC. $12.63 (Toronto symbol DW; SI Rating: Speculative) (1-800-301-6745; www.dundeewealth.com; Shares outstanding: 144.3 million; Market cap: $1.8 billion) has terminated the special committee set up late last year to study expressions of interest from companies interested in making takeover offers. Dundee Corp. will not sell its interest in DundeeWealth at this time. Dundee Corp. controls 60.8% of DundeeWealth. The Bank of Nova Scotia, Power Financial, Manulife Financial and CI Financial Income Fund were all reportedly considering bids. In September, 2007, Scotiabank purchased an 18% interest in DundeeWealth for $348 million. Scotiabank also has a right of first refusal on any sale of the controlling interest in DundeeWealth. DundeeWealth is still a hold....

ISHARES CDN LARGECAP 60 INDEX FUND $76.65 (Toronto symbol XIU; buy or sell through a broker) (formerly called iUnits S&P/TSX 60 Index Participation Fund) is a good low-fee way to buy the top stocks on the TSX. The units hold a basket of stocks that represent the S&P/TSX 60 Index. The index is made up of the 60 largest and most heavily traded stocks on the TSX. Expenses on the units are just 0.17% of assets. Most of the 60 stocks in the index are good quality companies. However, to meet the requirement that all sectors are represented, the index holds a few firms we wouldn’t include, such as Cott Corporation and Celestica. The index’s top holdings are: Royal Bank, 6.6%; Manulife Financial, 5.8%; TD Bank, 4.7%; Bank of Nova Scotia, 4.7%; EnCana Corporation, 4.4%; Suncor Energy, 3.9%; Research in Motion, 3.7%; Canadian Natural Resources, 3.5%; Bank of Montreal, 3.1%; CIBC, 3.3%; BCE Inc., 2.6%; Barrick Gold, 2.8%; Sun Life Financial, 2.9%; and Potash Corporation, 2.6%....

We think high-quality mutual funds with a long term focus will beat indexes over long periods. If funds invest as we advise — sticking with well established companies and spreading their assets out across the five main economic sectors — they will tend to lose a lot less than the market indexes in periods when the indexes fall sharply. That’s because big market slides are particularly hard on the hottest, most popular stocks of the preceding market rise, and investing as we do leads you to avoid excessive investment in the hot stocks. Index funds, in contrast, do tend to load up on the hottest, most popular stocks as they rise. That’s because, as they rise, these stocks make up a rising proportion of the index. Index funds are a better deal than the majority of funds now available, however. So if you merely want to equal the indexes, here are some of the best deals available in ETFs. We’ve also analysed one we don’t like....

RBC CANADIAN DIVIDEND FUND $44.84 (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) has 38.1% of its portfolio in Financial services stocks. It has a further 14.4% in Energy stocks and 8.5% in Consumer discretionary. The $9.6 billion RBC Canadian Dividend Fund’s top stock holdings are Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of Nova Scotia, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Manulife Financial, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, TransCanada Corporation, Bank of Montreal, BCE Inc. and Power Corporation. Over the last five years, RBC Canadian Dividend Fund has posted a 14.9% annual rate of return. That’s less than the S&P/TSX’s gain of 18.3% over the same period....

BMO DIVIDEND FUND $44.37 (BMO Mutual Funds, 77 King Street West, Suite 4200, Royal Trust Tower, Toronto, Ont., M5K 1J5, 1-800-665-7700; Web site: www.bmo.com. No load — deal directly with the bank) (CWA Rating: Conservative) currently holds about 49.0% of its portfolio in the Financial services industry. Its next-largest holdings are Energy at 15.1% and Consumer discretionary at 7.5%. BMO Dividend Fund’s largest holdings are Manulife Financial, Bank of Nova Scotia, CIBC, Royal Bank of Canada, Power Financial Corporation, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Canadian National Railway, TransCanada Corporation, Imperial Oil, Shaw Communications, Enbridge Inc., Husky Energy and Sun Life Financial. Over the last five years, the $5.8 billion BMO Dividend Fund has posted a 14.6% annual rate of return. That’s under the S&P/TSX’s gain of 18.3%. However, the S&P/TSX index held a high 40% or so of its holdings in Resources shares. That’s been one of the best-performing, although riskiest, sectors. The fund gained 1.8% over the last year, compared to a gain of 9.8% for the S&P/TSX index. BMO Dividend’s MER is 1.71%....

BMO Dividend and RBC Canadian Dividend hold mostly high-quality stocks. These stocks sometimes run into trouble and go through lengthy struggles, just like lesser investments. Eventually, though, most solve their problems and go on to thrive anew. Both funds hold a high proportion of their assets in financial services stocks. However, if you must focus on something, finance is a relatively stable sector. If you do invest in these funds, be sure to adjust the rest of your portfolio so these funds won’t overly concentrate your holdings in the financial sector....

RBC CANADIAN DIVIDEND FUND $44.84 (RBC Mutual 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) has 38.1% of its portfolio in financial-services stocks. It has a further 14.4% in energy stocks and 8.5% in consumer discretionary. The $9.6-billion RBC Canadian Dividend Fund’s top stock holdings are Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of Nova Scotia, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Manulife Financial, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, TransCanada Corporation, Bank of Montreal, BCE Inc. and Power Corporation. Over the last five years, RBC Canadian Dividend Fund has posted a 14.9% annual rate of return. That’s less than the S&P/TSX’s gain of 18.3% over the same period....

SYMANTEC, $16.38, symbol SYMC on Nasdaq, rose more than 10% this week after it reported that earnings excluding one-time items rose 16.3% in the three months ended December 31, 2007, to $291.7 million from $250.8 million a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 26.9%, to $0.33 from $0.26 on 9% fewer shares outstanding. Excluding the impact of acquisitions, revenues rose 15.3% to $1.53 billion from $1.32 billion. In the latest quarter, earnings gained from strong sales in Europe and Asia, and from the success of its Norton 360 AntiVirus software, which now accounts for 25% of its consumer sales. Symantec’s consumer business, which represents 29% of the company’s total revenues, grew 8%. Revenues from Symantec’s services business (6% of revenues) grew 40%. Security and data management sales (29% of revenues) grew 9%, and data center management sales (29% of revenues) rose 11%. In April 2007, Symantec acquired Altiris (management software) for $830 million. In December 2007, it bought Vontu (data loss prevention software) for $350 million. The company may make further acquisitions in 2008....