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Fidelity Northstar Fund
This go anywhere, all cap fund is managed by the team of Joel Tillinghast and Daniel Dupont. Both managers use their unique individual bottom up stock selection process.
read moreManulife U.S. Equity Fund
The U.S. market is one of the toughest to beat on a consistent basis, which is why I tend to favour low cost ETFs for my U.S. equity expo-sure. However, if you are looking for a well-managed, high quality, mutual fund that will give you a shot at outperforming the S&P 500 once in a while, then this fund, which mirrors the Mawer U.S. Equity Fund (MAW 108) is definitely worth considering.
read moreManulife Dividend Income Fund
Managed by the team of Alan Wicks, Conrad Dabiet, and Jonathan Popper, using a bottom up, fundamentally driven process that seeks out businesses of any size that have high returns on invested capital. Each potential investment candidate is scored on a number of factors, including stability and level of their earnings power, managerial skill and ownership, and financial leverage. A deeper due diligence review is conducted on the most attractive opportunities. This includes meetings with management and generating an estimate of fair value. They also determine buy and sell prices. Once a company is in the portfolio, they actively manage position sizes based on real time valuation levels. The closer a name is to its buy price, the greater the weight it has in the fund. Surprisingly, turnover levels have been modest, averaging around 70% for the past three years.
read moreCI Signature High Income Fund
In April, it was announced that Ryan Fitzgerald, co-manager of the fund had moved over to the Harbour Team, where he was appointed lead manager of the CI Harbour Fund, CI Harbour Global Equity, and CI Harbour Voyageur.
read moreIA Clarington Canadian Small Cap Fund
With a top quartile gain of 5.25%, the fund continues to deliver above average returns, with lower than average volatility. The managers use a fundamentally driven, bottom up investment process that looks for high quality businesses, run by strong management teams that are trading at attractive valuations
read moreFidelity Canadian Large Cap Fund
Despite lagging the S&P/TSX Composite Index, the fund still managed to outpace most of its peers in the first quarter. Much of this outperformance happened in January and February, when its underweight exposure to energy names and foreign holdings helped. However in March, with energy on the rebound and the Canadian dollar rising against the U.S. greenback, the fund lagged its peers.
read morePH&N Monthly Income Fund
With some level of stability returning to the energy markets, this Canadian neutral balanced fund rebounded nicely in the first quarter. The advisor sold units gained an impressive 3.25%, outpacing its benchmark and peer group. While this is encouraging, it is not enough for me to keep it on the Recommended List. While the bond portion is solid, the equities have been merely average. Returns have disappointed and volatility has been on the rise. I will continue to monitor the fund for any meaningful improvement in the outlook.
read moreMackenzie U.S. Large Cap Class
Over the past few quarters, I have noticed an uptick in the valuation levels in the portfolio, which has corresponded with higher volatility and an overall erosion in the risk reward metrics of the fund. The managers use an approach that is a mix of top down thematic with bottom up security selection, which gives it a bit of a growth tilt that has strongly outperformed over the past few years. However, as the market leadership looks to be shifting towards more value names, I expect this fund may be due for some slowdown in growth or...
read moreIA Clarington Canadian Conservative Equity Fund
This is a fund I have struggled with for a few quarters now. I originally like it because of its conservative nature, decent returns, and lower than average levels of volatility. To do this, the managers focus on well-managed, high quality Canadian companies that pay an above average dividend that is not only sustainable, but also growing. One of the risks of this strategy was over time, it became fairly concentrated in energy. More specifically, it invested heavily in energy infrastructure such as pipelines – the types of names that historically exhibited much less commodity sensitivity. However, when the energy swoon hit last year, investors sold off anything related to energy, including many of the names held in this fund. The result was a significant increase in volatility and levels of downside participation that were uncharacteristic for this fund.
read moreFidelity Dividend Fund
As investors continue their hunt for yield, dividend funds remain a popular choice, and this Fidelity offering is one of the best in the category. Managed by the team of Geoff Stein and David Wolf, who run the fund much like a fund of funds, making allocations to underlying funds managed by asset class specialists. They try to keep a fairly static asset mix that is in line with the fund’s benchmark, 95% equity and 5% in bonds. The bond allocation is through buying units in the Fidelity Canadian Bond Fund, which is a core offering that looks...
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