Two top safety-conscious dividend funds

Article Excerpt

BMO DIVIDEND FUND $41.10 (BMO Mutual Funds, 77 King Street West, Suite 4200, Royal Trust Tower, Toronto, Ont., M5K 1J5, Tel: 1-800-665-7700; Web site: www.bmo.com. No load — deal directly with the bank) (CWA Rating: Conservative) holds about 48.5% of its portfolio in the Finance sector. The fund’s next-largest sectors are Energy (23.4%), Consumer Discretionary (5.9%) and Materials (5.0%). The $3.9-billion BMO Dividend Fund’s largest stock holdings are Bank of Nova Scotia, CIBC, Royal Bank, Suncor Energy, Manulife Financial, Toronto-Dominion Bank, TransCanada Corporation, EnCana Corporation, Enbridge and Goldcorp. The fund’s MER is 1.71%. Over the five years to October 31, 2009, the fund posted a 3.7% annual rate of return. The S&P/TSX index returned 6.9% annually. The index gained from the big run-up in resources prices that lasted until early 2008. The S&P/TSX index holds a high 46% or so of its holdings in Resources stocks. The fund gained 4.0% over the year to October 31, 2009. The S&P/TSX index rose 15.7% over that…