A high-quality REIT Fund

Article Excerpt

ISHARES CDN REIT SECTOR INDEX FUND $14.78 (Toronto symbol XRE; buy or sell through a broker) holds the 12 Canadian real estate investment trusts (REITs) in the S&P/TSX Capped REIT Index. The weight of any one REIT, in terms of market capitalization (unit price times units outstanding), is limited to 25%. RioCan REIT makes up 24.1% of the index’s value; H&R REIT, 13.6%; Summit REIT, 10.8%; Calloway REIT, 9.1%; Boardwalk REIT, 8.4%; Canadian REIT, 7.8%; Canadian Apartment Properties REIT, 5.3%; Chartwell Seniors Housing REIT, 4.8%; Primaris Retail REIT, 4.8%; Legacy Hotels, 4.1%; Innvest REIT, 3.8%; and Retirement Residences REIT, 3.5%. We’ve glad to see that the top holding is RioCan, one of our favorite REITs. In fact, four of the top six holdings are among our recommendations. Note that iShares REIT holds a couple of REITs we don’t recommend. iShares REIT distributes income quarterly, currently at a rate of 5.3% annually. Expenses run at 0.55% of assets. iShares REIT is a buy. buy…