Topic: How To Invest

Hi Pat and staff: Several months ago I purchased Bank of Montreal shares near the bottom of the market. I made the purchase for the dividend yield at the time — 9.95% — and was very happy with the dividend yield I was able to secure. I remain happy with my yield, however, I am looking at the shares today and have a possible 75% gain from my purchase. While my yield is around 9.95% on my purchase price — I could realize over 7 years of dividends if I sold out today. I have both open and registered money involved, so any sale would have tax on the open and sheltered on the registered. At what point should I consider taking my profits and moving to something else? As always, thanks for your response.

Article Excerpt

Bank of Montreal, $49.82, symbol BMO on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 548.2 million; Market cap: $27.3 billion), is still a buy recommendation of our Successful Investor newsletter. So we recommend holding your shares, unless they make up too large a part of your portfolio. It’s a good idea not to let any one stock take up more than, say, 10% of your total portfolio. If the stock makes up an uncomfortably large proportion of your total portfolio, then consider selling some. Begin by selling the portion that’s in your RRSP, to avoid paying capital gains taxes on your gain. See our introduction above for more advice on deciding when and what to sell. sell. …