Resource and commodity stocks in general should make up only a limited portion of your portfolio—say less than 20% for a conservative investor or as much as 30% for an aggressive investor. And as part of that segment, energy stocks could make up, say half of that total. The rest could be fertilizer stocks, mining stocks and so on.
Oil and gas stocks have been below-average performers lately, and many investors are tempted to get out of the industry altogether. However, the energy sector can play a crucial role in your portfolio as a hedge against inflation. The low inflation rates of the past couple of decades deserve some of the blame for the poor performance of the sector. However, energy stocks will likely rebound in years to come as the global economy recovers.
- Invest mainly in well-established companies;
- Spread your money out across most if not all of the five main economic sectors (Manufacturing & Industry; Resources & Commodities; Consumer; Finance; Utilities);
- Downplay or avoid stocks in the broker/media limelight.
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DELPHI ENERGY $0.09 (Toronto symbol DEE; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (403-265-6171; www.delphienergy.ca; Shares o/s: 185.5 million; Market cap: $16.7 million) explores for, develops and produces oil and natural gas.
In the quarter ended June 30, 2019, Delphi’s cash flow per share fell 25.0%, to $0.06 from $0.08 a year earlier....
ENCANA CORP. $6.27 (www.encana.com) has announced the final results of its plan to buy back up to $213 million U.S. of its common shares through a Dutch auction. It will now repurchase 47.3 million shares at $4.50 U.S. each. That’s about 3.5% of the total number of shares outstanding....
We still advise investors to maintain some exposure to oil. For new buying, however, we prefer integrated producers like Chevron over exploration firms like Apache....
Paramount has now reportedly bought the Alberta oil sands assets of Koch Industries....
IMPERIAL OIL LTD. $33 (Toronto symbol IMO; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Shares outstanding: 802.7 million; Market cap: $26.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.8; Dividend yield: 2.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.imperialoil.ca) is a leading Canadian producer and refiner on crude oil....