Designed to help Canadians find investment solutions to the two big problems they’re facing: low interest rates and volatile stock markets, the Income Investor was chosen by The Globe and Mail as one of the top five investment newsletters in Canada. If you need income from investments with minimal risk, the Income Investor covers all types of income securities including income trusts, preferred shares, high-yielding common stocks, bonds, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, and GICs. Any security that generates cash flow is fair game for our experts.
Edited and published by Gordon Pape. Editor: Mike Keerma.
With Gavin Graham, Shawn Allen, Richard Croft, & David Kitai.
Recent Issues
tii2222 (November 25, 2022)
What ails the clean energy sector?… Time to revisit bonds… This month’s Top Picks: BMO Short Corporate Bond Index ETF, iShares Core Canadian Short-Term Bond ETF… Richard Croft updates CIBC… Gordon Pape updates BMO Global Consumer Staples Hedged to CAD Index ETF
tii2221 (November 10, 2022)
Pipe dreams… Summit REIT taken over… Gordon Pape updates Coca-Cola, Proctor & Gamble… Your Questions: The right time to buy
tii2220 (October 27, 2022)
Dividend yields hit multi-year highs… Top Pick: Definity Financial Corp…. Gavin Graham updates Fairfax Financial, Stella-Jones, CN Rail, Corby Spirits and Wines… Bear bites Balanced Portfolio… Gordon Pape updates Emera… Ryan Irvine’s fall events
tii2219 (October 13, 2022)
Utilities pay off… This month’s Top Pick: Duke Energy… Gordon Pape updates Canadian Utilities… Your Questions: What sectors to choose?
tii2218 (September 29, 2022)
High-Yield Portfolio setback… Retail REITs provide good opportunities… This month’s Top Pick: Primaris REIT… Gavin Graham’s REIT updates: Slate Grocery, Crombie, Automotive Properties, Granite… Gordon Pape’s ETF updates: Harvest Brands Leaders Plus, iShares 1-5 Year Laddered Corporate Bond
tii2217 (September 15, 2022)
Inflation protection… This month’s Top Pick: iShares 0-5 Years TIPS Bond Index ETF… Gordon Pape updates BMO Group, Innergex Renewable Energy, The North West Company… Your Questions: Interest rates and the BoC
tii2216 (August 25, 2022)
RRIF Portfolio posts gain… If it looks like a recession… Richard Croft updates Power Corporation, Manulife Financial… Gordon Pape updates Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure PLC, Principal Financial Group, B&G Foods, Western Union, Procter & Gamble
Recent Updates
Brookfield Renewable Partners (TSX: BEP.UN, NYSE: BEP)
Brookfield operates one of the world’s largest publicly traded platforms for renewable power and decarbonization solutions. It operates over 40 gigawatts of total installed capacity including hydroelectric, wind, solar, and utility-scale battery energy storage systems, alongside sustainable solutions like nuclear services (via Westinghouse Electric) and green fuels.
Hold
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (TSX: BIP.UN, NYSE: BIP)
This is a Bermuda-based limited partnership that owns infrastructure assets in North and South America, Europe, and Australia. These include railways, ports, transmission lines, toll roads, utilities, and more.
Hold
RBC Canadian Bank Yield Index ETF (TSX: RBNK)
You may wonder how an ETF that invests only in six banks can outperform the Financials sub-index and funds like the BMO Equal Weight Banks Index ETF (TSX: ZEB). The answer is asset mix.
Whereas the BMO fund equally divides its holdings among the Big Six banks, this one makes bets on which will perform best. At present, Bank of Montreal is the top position at 26.1% followed closely by Scotiabank at 25.1%. They’ve both done well, with BMO ahead about 43% year to date while Scotiabank has added about 24%.
Buy
Power Corporation of Canada (TSX: POW, OTC: PWCDF)
Power Corp. is a diversified financial holding company with controlling stakes in Great-West Lifeco and IGM Financial. It also owns two alternative‑asset platforms: Sagard and Power Sustainable.
This suite of companies allows POW to combine stable earnings from insurance and wealth management augmented by exposure to private markets and sustainable infrastructure.
Hold
iShares S&P/TSX Capped REIT Index Fund (TSX: XRE)
This fund invests in all classes of REITs, including residential, industrial, retail, and office. It has 14 holdings, the largest of which is RioCan REIT, which accounts for 13.14% of total assets. Retail REITs form about 51% of the portfolio while exposure to office REITs, which were hit hard during the pandemic, is very low at 3.33%.
The REIT has not delivered anything in the way of capital gains since it was recommended 15 years ago, which says a lot about the overall state of Canada’s real estate business. But it has delivered steady cash flow to investors and has significantly outperformed the overall sector year-to-date with a gain of just over 15%.