Swedish-based Ericsson (the legal name is Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson) is one of the world leaders in 5G technology.
Category: Picks
Apple Covered Call
This ETF invests in a portfolio of low-beta-rated Canadian stocks. Beta is a measure of a stock’s sensitivity to broad market movements. The lower the beta, the less sensitive a stock is to big up-and-down swings, and thus to unusually large gains or losses.
This ETF was launched in 2007 and holds 86 global stocks in the transportation, communication, water, and electricity services sectors. Five Canadian energy firms are included in the holdings.
BMO Global Infrastructure ETF (TSX: ZGI)
This was the first ETF launched by Bank of Montreal in 2010 and is a good-sized fund with $222 million in assets. It offers reasonable liquidity and passively follows the Dow Jones Brookfield Global Infrastructure North American Listed Index, with weightings based on the market capitalization of the stocks in the index.
This fund focuses on low volatility securities from countries outside Canada and the U.S.
CI Canadian REIT ETF (TSX: RIT).
This ETF holds a portfolio of Canadian REITs and real estate companies.
This ETF invests in a portfolio of U.S. dollar high-yield bonds, also known as junk bonds.
Parkland is Canada’s largest and one of North America’s fastest growing independent marketers of fuel and petroleum products.It is Canada’s second largest convenience store operator, delivering competitive product offerings to customers in the retail segment. As well, it owns the Parkland Burnaby Refinery.
Canoe EIT Income Fund (TSX: EIT.UN)
This is a closed-end fund that trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol EIT.UN. It invests in a portfolio of high-quality U.S. and Canadian stocks, mainly large- and mid-cap companies. Names in the portfolio include Berkshire Hathaway, Bank of Montreal, Brookfield Asset Management, Wells Fargo, Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, and Royal Bank.
Waste Connections Inc. (TSX, NYSE: WCN)
Toronto-based Waste Connections operates both in Canada and the U.S., serving six million residential, commercial, and industrial customers. It is also active in the oil patch, providing waste disposal for that segment. The business is vertically integrated since the company controls everything from collection to recycling to landfill. That sets it apart from some of […]
iShares China Large Cap ETF (NYSE: FXI)
This ETF tracks the performance of the FTSE China 50 Index, which comprises the country’s largest companies.
International Business Machines is one of the world’s largest technology companies.
Questor Technologies (TSX-V: QST)
Questor was founded in 1994. It is headquartered in Calgary, with field offices in Grande Prairie, Alberta, Brighton, Colorado, and Brooksville, Florida. The company is active in Canada, the United States, Europe, and Asia and is focused on clean air technologies that safely and cost effectively improve air quality, support energy efficiency, and greenhouse gas […]
This REIT specializes in light industrial properties, mainly located in Canada but with a U.S. expansion strategy. It owns and operates a portfolio of 223 geographically diversified properties comprising approximately 20.2 million square feet of gross leasable area.
Archer-Daniels-Midland (NYSE: ADM)
Headquartered in Chicago, ADM is one of the world’s largest agricultural processors and food ingredient providers. It has approximately 31,000 employees serving customers in more than 170 countries. It has approximately 500 crop procurement locations, 270 ingredient manufacturing facilities, 44 innovation centres, and an extensive crop transportation network.
Boralex Inc. (TSX: BLX, OTC: BRLXF)
Montreal-based Boralex is a renewable energy company producing electricity from sustainable sources such as wind, solar, and hydro.
AeroVironment (NDQ: AVAV)
AeroVironment is largest supplier of small, unmanned aircraft systems (drones) to the Pentagon and to dozens of allied nations. It also manufactures tactical missile systems. Some of their products are used for search and rescue operations but most are for military purposes.
This REIT invests in a portfolio of light industrial properties. It has a few assets in the West and one in the Maritimes, but the prime focus is on Ontario and Quebec.
The fund is well suited for defensive portfolios.
This ETF tracks the Dow Jones Industrial Average (hedged to Canadian dollars) and uses covered call options to generate additional income.
Netflix Covered Calls
Facebook Covered Call
Cedar Fair LP (NDQ: FUN)
The company is in the theme park business with 13 parks throughout the U.S. and one near Toronto: Canada’s Wonderland. They also have five hotels adjacent to their parks with 1,600 rooms. As well, they own 1,400 acres of undeveloped land adjacent to their parks for future expansion.
Microsoft (NDQ: MSFT)
Microsoft is the world’s largest software company.
This preferred is the result of rate reset holders converting to the floating rate preferreds. It still currently trades well below par.
InterRent REIT (TSX: IIP.UN, OTC: IIPZF)
InterRent’s strategy of buying properties in need of upgrades is the main reason why its new leases are offering superior returns. The company starts with common areas and then renovates individual units as they come available. Redoing kitchen and bathrooms enables it to increase rents when units turn over.
SPDR Gold Trust
This is the largest gold ETF in the world.
Supremex (TSX: SXP, OTC: SUMXF)
Supreme is an envelope and packaging manufacturer that operates in Canada and the U.S.
BHP Group (NYSE: BBL)
BHP Group is a huge Australia-headquartered global mining and petroleum company. It has $109 billion in assets and about 80,000 employees and contractors. Iron ore is its main product, accounting for 57% of revenue in fiscal 2021. Copper was 27% of revenue, with coal at 9% and petroleum contributing 7%. It has a very heavy […]
Headquartered in Montreal, Dynacor is an artisanal and small-scale mining corporation.
Plaza Retail REIT (TSX: PLZ.UN)
Plaza Retail REIT owns and is the operator of unenclosed strip shopping malls. As of Dec. 31, it owned 251 properties comprising 8.8 million sq. ft. These are located in Atlantic Canada (60%), Quebec (20%), and Eastern Ontario (20%). Some 90% of its tenants are national chains, with Loblaw’s/Shoppers Drug representing 24% and Dollarama 6%. […]
This ETF offers an equally-weighted portfolio of the 10 largest U.S. and Canadian life insurance companies. The managers also write covered call options on a portion of the portfolio to generate extra income.
This ETF tracks the North American Marijuana Index, which includes publicly traded companies from across the continent with an emphasis on Canada.
Sylogist Ltd. (TSX-V: SYZ, OTC: SYZLF)
Sylogist is a software company that, through strategic acquisitions, investments and operations management, provides intellectual property solutions to a range of public sector customers.
The company’s headquarters are in Waterloo, Ontario and Descartes has offices and partners around the world.
This preferred is just about the oldest minimum rate reset on the market, and therefore has one of the longest track records of any preferred of its type. It is also one of the few issues that has an investment-grade credit rating.
The company is Canada’s only fully integrated national distributor in the building materials and related products sector. It operates two business segments, Building Materials Distribution and Forestry. CanWel has plants and distribution centres in both Canada and the U.S. and owns approximately 136,000 acres of timberland in Western Canada. The company was founded in 1989 […]
PIMCO Monthly Income ETF (TSX: PMIF)
This recently launched ETF is based on a mutual fund of the same name that has been in existence since January 2011.
The ETF was launched in July 2014 and has $530 million in assets under management.
The mandate is to invest in a portfolio of investment-grade bonds that are not denominated in U.S. dollars. The main holdings are issues from Japan, France, Germany, Italy, and the U.K. All but a small fraction of the bonds are investment-grade (BBB or higher) so credit risk is minimal.
This ETF invests in a portfolio of U.S. dollar-denominated bonds that can be both investment grade and high yield.
Over the past 30 years, Fairfax has succeeded in building one of the largest personal and commercial insurance companies in North America. Almost all its insurance businesses continue to be run by the original management and have consistently been able to make money through underwriting.
This U.S.-based ETF offers exposure to the video gaming sector of the market.
iShares MSCI Germany ETF
This ETF tracks the performance of a portfolio of large and mid-size German companies.
Cott Beverages
Cott is primarily a private label manufacturer of beverages with a vast array of customers, although they do have a few of their own brands.
The BMO US Put Write ETF (TSX: ZPW.U)
Selling put options is a twist on the covered call strategy, but the risk and returns are similar if the ETF does not leverage its positions. This ETF does not use leverage and in fact secures the sale of all the put options with cash.
Square Inc.
Square Inc. develops and provides payment processing, point-of-sale (POS), financial, and marketing services worldwide. The Company combines software with hardware that allows sellers to turn mobile and computing devices into payments and point-of-sale solutions.
Advanced Micro Devices
Global semi-conductor company Advanced Micro Devices makes the microchips that run computers and many smart appliances. AMD primarily offers x86 microprocessors as an accelerated processing unit (APU), chipsets, discrete graphics processing units (GPUs), and professional graphics. It also offers server and embedded processors, and semicustom System-on-Chip (SoC) products and technology for game consoles.
Excel High Income Fund
The fund is managed by Sergei Strigo of Amundi Asset Management. The corporate name may not be familiar, but Amundi is one of the largest firms of this type in Europe with over US$1 trillion in assets under management. The fund’s track record is very impressive. As of May 31, it shows a five year […]