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TD Health Sciences Fund
Apart from a couple of blips along the way, healthcare has been on a tear since August 2010. This fund is no exception, gaining an annualized 34% in the past five years. Much of this growth has been fueled by excitement over advances such as the mapping of the human genome, great strides in cancer research, and potential merger and acquisition activity. There have also been regulatory changes that make it more difficult for the drug companies to launch new products. This T. Rowe Price managed offering has become my top pick in the sector,...
read moreFidelity China Fund
With an impressive 29.0% gain, the Fidelity China Fund took the crown as the top performing fund for the first half of the year. It handily outpaced its peers, and kept up to the MSCI All China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan Index in Canadian dollar terms. However, the tide seems to have turned in China, and the index is off more than 18% from its June 12th peak. Much of this year’s earlier gains were attributed to margin fueled buying, and this recent selloff will help bring prices back to normal. As this happens, expect continued volatility, as...
read moreHorizons Active Canadian Dividend ETF
This actively managed dividend ETF is managed by Sri Iyer and his team at Guardian Capital, using a proprietary, multi factor quantitative model that screens the Canadian equity universe looking for positive rates of change in the fundamentals of companies. The model looks at 31 key factors including growth, payout ratios, efficiency, valuation and investor sentiment. Each of the factors is weighted, with growth, payout and sustainability factors being the most important for this strategy. The model is run on a daily basis, with the highest...
read moreBeutel Goodman Canadian Dividend Fund
Dividend funds have been a favourite with investors, and with offerings like this, it’s not hard to see why. Managed by a team lead by Stephen Arpin and Mark Thomson, it invests in a concentrated portfolio of dividend paying, blue-chip stocks that are trading below their estimate of its true worth. To find these stocks, the team uses a disciplined, bottom up, value focused process that looks for well-managed, highly competitive companies that are trading at significant discounts to what they are really worth. They are conservative in their...
read moreBeutel Goodman Balanced Fund
This is essentially a fund of Beutel Goodman managed funds including Beutel Goodman Canadian Equity and Beutel Goodman Income. It invests in the American and International Equity Funds to gain its foreign equity exposure. Mark Thomson, who also runs the Canadian Equity fund is responsible for the asset mix. It has a target mix of 40% bonds and 60% equities. It is not expected to stray too far from this mix, and any deviations will be based on the expected return opportunities within each of the underlying asset classes. At the end of May, it...
read moreSteadyhand Global Equity Fund (SIF 140)
After a very rough 2014, it looks like the fund’s contrarian, value focused style is starting to reward investors. To the end of May, it has gained 15.3%, outpacing the MSCI World Index. Much of this outperformance can be attributed to the fund’s Japanese holdings. At March 31, it held nearly a third of the portfolio in Japan, and another 16% in other Asian names. They like Japan for a few reasons, the biggest of which being the decline in the Yen, which makes Japanese exporters extremely competitive. The portfolio holds many Japanese...
read moreBMO Equal Weight REITs Index ETF (TSX: ZRE)
After a strong January, Canadian REITs have struggled to capitalize on that momentum, remaining flat. The main reason for this is the interest rate environment. January’s gain was the result of the Bank of Canada’s surprise cut in rates. Since then, we’ve seen some upward pressure on yields, which has made it tough for REITs to make any real headway. REITs are attractive because of the juicy yields they kick off, so when rates rise, they become less attractive. While the near term outlook remains cloudy based on the uncertainty caused by the...
read moreiShares Core S&P 500 Index ETF (TSX: XSP)
The outlook for the Canadian economy is uncertain, and the valuation of EAFE names are not quite as compelling as they were a few months ago, making U.S. equities once again a strong contender. For U.S. exposure, this ETF remains my top pick. It is designed to track the S&P 500 and it fully hedges its currency exposure, so you receive the same return that a U.S. domiciled investor would have received. Intuitively that makes sense, but currency can play a huge role in returns. For example, in our last Focus List review for the three months...
read moreBMO MSCI EAFE Index (C$ Hedged) ETF (TSX: ZDM)
Earlier in the year, the valuation levels of EAFE equities looked quite compelling. That’s not the case so much anymore, after an impressive 8.7% gain in the past three months helped close that valuation gap. Most of these gains were driven by the European Central Bank’s stimulus program was launched in March, and recent economic data that shows growth is returning to many European economies. At the end of April, Morningstar reported that the MSCI EAFE Index had a price to earnings ratio of 18.1, which is slightly below the S&P 500, but...
read morePowerShares FTSE RAFI Canadian Fundamental (TSX: PXC)
The theory of a fundamentally constructed ETF is very sound. Instead of building the portfolio based solely on the market capitalization of a stock, as is done in traditional indexing, fundamental ETFs use factors that are believed to better predict outperformance. These factors include sales, cash flow, book value, and dividends. The main criticism with a traditional cap weighted index is the potential for overconcentration, as bigger companies take up a disproportionate weight in the portfolio. Fundamental indexing reduces that likelihood,...
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