There is plenty of discussion going on throughout the site on various Canadian securities so this post is for creation of a “Canadian Discussion” page.
This was requested by a reader and it is easy to do so we can do it quickly.
Hopefully this will be a page for those with Canadian interest will meet up.
I went dumpster diving and picked up a half position in BCE at $27.11. Wish me luck!
good luck Gumfighter – I’m looking at it too as sold my shares last year. Thinking it may go even lower before Xmas due to a lot of tax loss selling. I did pick up some of the prefs now yielding over 10%
Looking over my portfolio for CA holdings; I have Morguard C corp as mentioned before here; Building Cenovus, Veren on the selloff, Surge Energy, Superior Plus Corp (propane//lng/rng transport) Paramount and Acadian Timber. ACAZF my smallest 1%, would add on weakness there. Others I am pretty good. Barrick the only gold/copper name now. All in Roth or TradIRA; no tax w/h on divs, Morguard in the taxable, minimal div, a r/e value play.
(unrelated to Canada as they are US common stocks/ but noting, I did sell Haverty Furniture for a 6% loss offset by selling for gain in taxable some Chart Industries where I had a 25% gain, big jump over 130 from my 106 basis there GTLS. w SPAXX and SGOV yields falling put some SPAXX money into AGM pfds in the Roth. I know Tim has the ‘E’ in his ballast portfolio listing.
‘Cash’ is about 52%. We’ll see what the next few weeks bring, CA energy names have good covg on the divs, 2025 to me is shaping up as an ‘income’ stream year more than a gain year but who knows. Is 4% after a 23% year followed by an 18% one (2024) in 2025 that bad ? capital preservation. glta DYODD Bea
Just some food for thought after I watched CDN economist David Rosenberg being interviewed today. When asked his thoughts on CDN $ vis a vis US$ he is looking for a sharp drop in CDN$ should Trump be elected and Republicans take control of congress. His reasoning – the likely tariffs promoted by Trump will sharply impact CDN economy and with our central bank already lowering rates quicker than Fed Reserve he sees the CDN$ weakening from appx 1.38 to 1.50 From my perspective this would help all my US$ holdings but for US investors the depreciation in CDN$ could result in quite a haircut on your CDN holdings. So depending on how you see the election playing out this could be something to consider over next few weeks.
Thanks – I have Canadian energy stocks – if the loonie drop against the USD, I’ll be able to buy more O&G assets at a lower price. Canadian energy is a long term hard hold for me – massive reserves, essential to our civilization, good dividends. Rosenberg is someone to listen to.
Any thoughts on why EBBGF took a 3.5% hit today?
Only 100 shares traded at that price but because it was the last non-odd lot trade of the day that was the print…. After that 10 shares traded @24.12, 90 shares@ 23.95, and a final 10 shares @ 24.11… meaningless drop because of that – it also looks like that 100 shares was the last 100 of an approx 4000 share sell order will all other trades over 23.50 including 3160 @ 23.75.
Info courtesy of Fido Active Trader Pro
Thank you 2WR.
Yes. Some traders think the barn is on fire to fire sale some of these stronger issues.
New but familiar name to me for my RothIRA, started position in Superior Plus (SPB on TSX; SUIIF us otc) ..this is primarily a propane supplier #1 in CA #4 in US; they bot a mobile storage unit transport co last year Centaurus for future growth/diversification. ‘low carbon’ play somewhat as they transport renewable and compressed NG and hydrogen. Focus on debt paydown no debt wall till 2026 for the acquisition debt taken on, blended rates of 5.5% on their debt; pays covered div of CA .72 at .18/q. Holding in Roth, no Canadian 15% w/holding tax// DYODD Bea
What a horrible chart. Are you chasing yield or bottom fishing?
Bea, I hope you know about a Canadian Website: Stockchase. Sometimes pick up an info morsel over the years, Re: SPB, FYI: “Brookfield owns over 13% of the comany and likes the recurring income cashflow scenario…”
Joel, I came across a website in the last year or two that was run by a person who had lists of Canadian companies that I think was grouped by market segment. Wish I could give a more detailed description, but at the time I wasn’t as interested as I am now and I didn’t bookmark the site.
Thanks for the suggestion of Stockchase. I checked it out but not really for me. A site that aggregates information from multiple sources is too much like trying to drink from a fire hose.
The site I am looking for just lists and rates each company for a retirement portfolio. I think he might have even been a adviser for Canadian retirement funds.
Hi Joel A; yes I am familiar w Stockchase which has apparently morphed into a US/CA site from a CA only site. Hadn’t looked in a while, thanx! the usual suspects are on there on the Canadian stock names like Rick Rule and Eric Nuttall , they aggregate and summarize their views w buy/sell/hold/weak buy. Then of course there is ‘nuthouse’ Stockhouse.com which is a place unto itself and I don’t bother anymore..and my preferred site for most where I participate, CEO.CA . CEO you get mostly the day trader noise but some investor comment that is good, insider info via their SEDI link, links to website for companies, some good chat, they post CA analysis recommendations from the banks, Jeffries, Stifel Canada etc. So that is my go to.
A few SA peeps cover CA stocks regularly like Canadians Trapping Value and Sandpiper Investment Research and Dale Roberts (I don’t bother w that one) .. of course I am in Taylor Dart’s service AGR which is primarily of course precious metals/royalty cos but lots of technical analysis w fundamentals as well and he will ‘ballast’ his buys in the PM space w some juicy Canadian finds he sees out there. Aritzia the specialty womens clothing chain which more than doubled was one.. Sleep Country Canada (great symbol ZZZ on the TSX!! ) another.
anyway CEO.CA and the few SA authors I use primarily. You have to be careful on stockchase and stockhouse a lot of paid promoters, CEO has some as well but they have strict disclosure rules to post. Canada is an important part of my investing so I enjoy the chat and ideas! I know folks do well in CA pfds and resets, etc but it just complicates my investing to a degree so I don’t really do those personally. You can’t do it all if you spread your investing to too many areas you become just an index fund imo. Bea
Thanks Bea, CEO.ca is a little hard to navigate but I liked the drop-down boxes for market sectors and this actually led me to an insurance company that Sandpiper did an article about on SA.
Sandpiper is really good. Has a good article on UMH today.
Trapping Value has an article on Laurentian Bank, LRCDF, the true also ran of CA banking and sees greenshoots after years of mess there, possible cleanup to be acquired finally by the big 6. They seem committed to the div, but really the yield to me is speculative at best, they even keep their DRIP. CET1 ratio improving. The one pfd did really well. May nibble not sure for the Roth so the divs are tax free. Always on the lookout for interesting Canadian names. GLTA have a good short week. Bea
Bea, read that article as well. As soon as word came out Canadian Western being bought I then sold and just threw it into Royal Bank common until I decided what to do with it. Wold certainly be nice to speculate on Laurentian and get another CWB type run up.
Bea, were you also holding a preferred of Hudson’s bay or something similar ?
no HPP or pfd , som mad trading Charles in ofc pfds in 2023, but out of them and the common’s.. I am only long SLG-I the Rolls Royce of office now in pfds or REITs (I do have some ofc exposure in CA thru Morguard C corp, also BF Saul has some ofc in its mix.) ..
Yes my PP, my Pig Pile, Laurentian Bank is a pure spec, TV would not be in it if he didnt feel comfortable and I know he limits his positions and uses/writes covered calls on them etc. But his deep dives always give us a good starting point. Feels like a risk off day overall but that is September. I might do stink bid on Laurentian not sure, did some minor trading this AM so far added to Paramount PRMRF the CA ng/ngl name, a little PP ‘BP’ as I build there, will hold off and keep lots of cash around from anything major like a ‘new’ position’. Bea
Good idea on BP, I will put a bobber out on that this morning. Was always tough to consider Laurentian, but I’ve been watching it for several yrs. Maybe worth a shot, you’re right on the dividend, not sure that really is a consideration at this point.
Dipped my big toe in for a few shares in my Roth IRA at Fidelity which has no commission. Schwab would charge a flat $6.95. Thanks. Thought LRCDF was worth a nibble.
Looking for feedback on the Canadian economy. How has it compared to the US economy in a downturn? Does it detach from our economy and go it’s own way or if the US catches a cold it follows along. I know in the past it’s been heavily dependent on natural resources and world wide demand for them. The recent building of a pipeline to the Pacific makes them less dependent on the US market. What other things should I be looking at? Their real estate market mirrors the demand here in the US and this makes me uncomfortable with the banking system related to real estate loans
US catches a cold it follows along. ~50% of Canadas reserves are US dollars.
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1010012701
Home building is restricted heavily by local municipalities which require master planned communities and stricter permitting laws.
Default rates on Canadian mortgages have been historically been low in Canada. Cautious CMHC modified the rules to include a revised stress test condition and any home valued over $1M requires 20% minimum down payment.
On top of this borrowers below the minimum amount require to carry mortgage insurance as a back stop.
Recently secured line of credits against the house have been revised down to 65% LTV.
Even if a default occurs and reposession of assets the available inventory is terribly low due to the governments mass importation of 500,000 new immigrants a year. Causing any inventory to be swallowed up.
Recently default rates on unsecured credit have been on the rise as the consumer is feeling the strains of the end of the cycle.
Thanks micahc,
I read TD which has US branches got in trouble with the Feds and had to pay a fine. This created a butterfly effect when TD sold SCHW stock to bank cash reserves to pay the fine.
With substantial CA investments, I am ok being long the co’s I have. The banks and govt will navigate the mortgage reset avalanche well and rates falling will help. They already are. The housing shortage is real given the massive immigration and lack of approved buildable land as noted. And banks don’t want houses or condos.
A core taxable a/c holding w very low nominal div is Morguard Corp (MRCBF, MRC:CA). They had a nasty debt due issue navigated well albeit with an early high cost debs. Controlled by the Sahi family, Mr Sahi built Morguard from scratch starting as a laborer from India in 1971. The billionaire has groomed his daughter Angela w her moving up the ranks as Pres and COO. Sahi added hotels (Temple) to his r/e empire of ofc/apts/malls/retail/r-e mgmt in late 2019..oops..pandemic. He sold most of them and used the proceeds and gains to continue to improve the balance sheet. Partnering w Armco, another CA billionaire/family, Armoyan;s, they are buying up shares in the retail and Apt REIT. Armoyan has been buying shares too in the C corp. He is now on the board too. Things seem to have stabilized and there are enough levers to pull even in a slowdown. https://www.morguard.com/news-knowledge/news/news-detail/?nid=123495
Anyway to me is a great alt investment and bet on Canada and its future. Extremely thinly traded but have built a holding in w US otc using limit orders. They comply to be ok w US otc rules. Well DYODD! just another obscure Bea name in a world of stock pickin.
On labor day, a laborer turned billionaire. Bea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K._Rai_Sahi
Anyone know why BEPI (Brookfield BRP 4.875% BB) was down 3.5% yesterday? End of the month randomness, or something specific? I searched a little bit for company specific news, but didn’t find anything that would explain it.
Fixed investments that jump up >6% in a couple of weeks, tend to normalize.
An undercovered infra play (oil storage, pipelines) is Gibson Energy in Canada, which made a big buy of oil storage outside Houston but still kept their debt under control, GBNXF otc, GEI on TSX. New article on SA today, had traded that and out of it before so revisited, starter position at US 15.88. Holding in Roth so no CA w/holding tax.
Pays .41/q or abooot US.30 w Loonie around .73/1; I am surprised it hasnt been bought out w the still crazy market to buy up infra. Anyway just an idea, DYODD, not tax advice etc. So about a 7.53% yield w room to grow it. CA storage, US/CA pipe, gathering etc. The Cinderella of CA o/ng infra names. Bea
Bot on Pinks at $5.55 and now years later sold those was hoping for a double, I had my chance, but had not built out CN loonie account: FRU.
Consistently have an open order at $CN 13. Perfect drip holding. Will see if a recesion gets me back up to orig holding levels, I suspect it will.
Freehold’s site is worth a visit! Eh?
Montreal bound this week! Oh Canada!
Added to FRHLF Freehold o/ng royco( a PFIC best held in the retirement portfolio to avoid IRS onerous paperwork unless you/your broker are ok w it).. have mentioned before. Just a tad at 9.58US this am. pays C.09/mo. Held in Roth, there is no CA w/holding tax. Flipped some VET I bot yest at 8.88US for 9.67 to reduce my basis in my core holding for me/conviction and often controversial name, EU is cooking hot and TTM ng is up nicely, a good deal of theirs is unhedged, they continue to buyback almost daily on the TSX..DYODD. Bea https://www.insidertracking.com/node/7?menu_tickersearch=VET*CA+%7C%7C+Vermilion+Energy
Bot on Pinks at $5.55 and now years later sold those was hoping for a double, I had my chance, but had not built out CN loonie account: FRU.
Consistently have an open order at $CN 13. Perfect drip holding. Will see if a recesion gets me back up to orig holding levels, I suspect it will.
Freehold’s site is worth a visit! Eh?
Montreal bound this week! Oh Canada!
Joel let me know what it’s like to go to a big Canadian city. Trying to figure out what to do for our 35th next year.
Was thinking about going back to Victoria and renting a car and driving around the island. Didn’t like Vancouver. Just another big city.
Goto Cow Town Calgary.
So many things to do in the world, yet it’s getting over trodden with tourists. I had completely forgotten about the Calgary rodeo event.
Really, Mont Real is just another big city, for me it is getting out of StL heat. Did Ottawa (liked walking tour for two days in COOL weather) and Adarondacks. Just keep travelin’!!
Loonie still at a GREAT exchange for what we did.
Well ‘Bea Early’ the FIFO queen of trends and investing in individual names was early too early? in VET and PRMRF which of course are hit this quarter by lower ng/ngl prices, helped by strong balance sheets and positive anyway on FCF. It feels like summer doldrums, I see US ng use at an all time high as low cost feed for electric plants and the dam heat driving us all crazy, at least here in the Burgh. 90 90 90 omg. Anyway w 2% in each holding, the exposure to oil/ngl should help somewhat in both, esp VET in Europe. My Whitecap is holding up well $SPGYF benefiting from the new outlet to the W. Coast for CA oil. Bea
Two addons to CA energy , Paramount Resources PRMRF the ng/ngl (48% liquids) co pays CA$.15/mo or about US.11/mo on 21.35 about a 6.1%ish yield in the RothIRA no CA 15% w/holding tax. Added to Vermilion VET again in the Roth w an ok div but focus there is buybacks by the company, diversified energy in CA/EU (ng) and AUS; built to a a top holding.
4 focus areas in my portfolio now, Cash-like (SGOV, GAM-B, SR-A type stuff) then of course pfds, bb’s, gold miners/royalty companies (15% max) and Energy(15%)
((not CA related/ but I do have some BTI (did trim from 17% gain off 30 base) and NLCP the pot r/e co (no K-1) a new holding and GBDC also new. COAL the coal etf, FLBR Brazil etf. The ‘oddballs’ in the portfolio. Oh well, just doing some review after a busy week, DYODD. )) Bea
You’ve got me curious, Bea – Why do you consider GAM-B and SR-A “cash like?” To me, cash like would mean stable price in all circumstances including rising or falling interest rates and stable income, but on the surface, these are both plain vanilla perpetuals subject to the same risks of any long duration preferred, right? Am I missing something or do we have different concepts of cash like?
I guess ‘safer’ not ‘cash like’ would have been more appropriate. I am anticipating 4% on short term money/cash so they should hold well, believe me most of the ‘cash’ is in SGOV and SPAXX just 4% total in GAM/SR tings.
Charles, BBSEY still interests me I had a small gain there Fri/ and moved that to the ETF FLBR which of course has more minerals/financials but more diversified, I like that little low cost ETF for Brazil representation. Brazil is the only non US/CA/AUS country I will invest in now other than the BTI of course. I had a US$1 gain on Telus TU from 14.80 and booked it Dano to capital in the Roth. Day Trader Bea.. hey the volatility is great, I won’t own things unless they could be longer term but when I get a pop short term I sell and put them back on the watch/hotlist.
I don’t mind sharing trades which I do anyway on SA and as long as they have somewhat of an Innovative Income bent. Tim’s old site is where I learned of the Canadian div payers! Might not seem like it but capital preservation is my rule 1 too like Tim and Buffett– and most of us! have a good weekend all. Bea
LOL, Bea you’re so funny, I sold my BBSEY Friday. It’s semi annual on the dividend and it’s August sometime I seem to remember not sure about the market so I booked a small gain and may circle back around before Feb. Us Americans are addicted to Quarterly payments so the ADR’s could drift lower with no one interested. Tempted to book the gain on TU but it’s still away from it’s 52 week high.
Haven’t done much buying of anything except TRINI and Z and of course BMY and I moved about 20% out of T Rowe ultra short term Treasury fund into the SPAXX that is backing up a lot of GTC orders and I needed fresh funds in there. I think it’s going to be a wild roller coaster ride between August through November. I understand the Capital preservation thing, but outside SS the only income we have is the IRA’s so hopefully between the bonds and the preferred I am holding don’t fall too much. Most are below par or around par by about 50 cents. I hold very few that are way over par.
Bea, still holding BBSEY? had a nice jump on Friday. TU another CA has been doing good.
Great news for ENB: My largest holding in any company….ever. Own Common, 4 prefs and bonds across different accounts accumulated with confidence over a long span of time. Looking at the Y Pref resetting end July as an addition.
Consistency in management over decades! Here’s to Canadian Brands and their acknowleded commitments to their citizens!
ENB Upgraded to Pfd-2(low) by DBRS
DBRS Limited has announced that it:
upgraded Enbridge Inc.’s (ENB or the Company) Issuer Rating and Senior Unsecured Notes rating both to A (low), Preferred Shares rating to Pfd-2 (low), and Commercial Paper rating to R-1 (low). Morningstar DBRS also confirmed the credit rating of the existing Subordinated Notes (Existing Subordinated Notes) at BBB (low) and assigned a final credit rating of BBB to its Fixed-to-Fixed Rate Subordinated Notes due March 15, 2055, and Fixed-to-Fixed Rate Subordinated Notes due June 27, 2054 (together, the New Subordinated Notes). All trends are Stable. Morningstar DBRS also upgraded Enbridge Energy Partners, L.P.’s (EEP) Senior Unsecured Notes rating to A (low) with a Stable trend based on ENB’s guarantee; EEP in turn guarantees ENB’s Senior Unsecured Notes. ENB also guarantees the Senior Unsecured Notes of Spectra Energy Partners, L.P., which in turn guarantees ENB’s Senior Unsecured Notes. At the same time, Morningstar DBRS has removed the Under Review With Developing Implications (UR-Dev.) status of the credit ratings of ENB and EEP.
https://prefblog.com/?p=46997 full copy and more
Long ENB, EBGEF, and EBBGF. Thx for posting Joel A.
Joel, is the Y reset based off Treasury or Canadian rates? What is the OTC symbol? TY
Fee ‘creep’.. we talked about the Vanguard 7/1 fees a few times here… my 3 a/c are w Fidelity and have been since 2003. With 11 foreign stocks and ADRs all that pay dividends, this Vanguard Fee would really bother me.
“Foreign securities and American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) dividends fee: A fee of 1% on the gross dividend amount will be charged when a dividend is paid on a foreign or ADR asset held in U.S. dollars.
Most of us whether by need, habit or just realizing they add up- mind our pennies which we have turned into dollars over time. This would add up to hundreds of dollars for me if Fidelty goes this route. I doubt it but who knows.. I often wondered if the days of ‘zero commissions/fees/etc” pendulum would swing against us who manage our own money.
One stock I have now the sponsored ADR manager has upped their take of dividends (CitiBank is the sponsor of BTI British Tobacco) from .005 on ea (this one pays quarterly) to .01.. so 4c a yr coming out of the divs..or about 1.4%.. at current payout rates on that one which is UK so no div tax.. if I had to pay Vanguard too, that comes to 2.4% off my yield on primarily an income stock. Of course currency risk.
another example..which may be ‘waived’ again but hasn’t been, of fee-creep.. SGOV which I use for a large portion of cash over my SPAXX sweep, the Blackrock fee is .07% now, but they were waiving .06% thru 6/30/24..next week.. the .13% fee if they don’t continue the waiver about matches BIL the SPDR short term tbill ETF.
Anyway sorry to go on but with a large portion of portfolio in cash and good bit allocated to foreign stocks, and still w 0 commissions on pfds, moving more into pfds is more likely in BeaVille for sure. Always something, keeping us on our toes. B
Allied World Assurance 4.35% 10/29/25 CUSIP 01959EAC2 to be called from proceeds of new issue private placement by Fairfax Financial Holdings that will close on 6/24. Last trade 98.253….. this is a frustrating one that I own (and bot) at Fidelity but have been precluded from buying or selling for years……..
https://seekingalpha.com/pr/19762628-fairfax-announces-pricing-of-senior-notes-offering-and-re-opening-of-6_000-percent-senior?hasComeFromMpArticle=false&source=content_type%253Areact%257Csection%253Amain_content%257Cbutton%253Abody_link%257Cfirst_level_url%253Anews
2WR what was the reason given for not letting you sell? I assume you are glad to be getting your money so you can roll it over into a higher yielding investment.
It’s been so long ago that I really can’t tell you, Charles… I know I managed a swap into a few of these back in 2020 at a high price but picking up 170 basis selling shorter maturity Allegheny Corp bonds after having bot most in 2019 at 98.57 to yield 4.60%. It was probably last year or even earlier that I asked Fido Fixed Income why these trade every day according to your trade history but I can’t act on what I own… I probably got the “we don’t make a market or have these in inventory” line but I don’t remember whether or not I tried to escalate this by asking them to find a market…. I may not have since I knew I wasn’t a seller and would be unwilling to buy on the offered side…
If someone can manage to pick some of these up at a discount below 99, more power to you…I don’t see anything on EDGAR on this private so maybe there’s a market opportunity here tomorrow for somebody…
Just curious, I know on Long end when we had the ZRIP for returns people were locking in 4% and happy to get it compared to what we were getting in CD’s I had no interest in bonds then, just stocks. Now that rates have gone up I have been a buyer of short term bonds with the intention of holding to maturity. In the panic I should have bought some on the long end but now when I look out 15 or 20 yrs the prices and yields don’t tempt me.
Why? because bonds remind me of gold and silver, you pay a commission to both buy and sell and for the most part you have to take what the market offers you on prices.
Kinda like getting married, love or hate it, you’re either in it for the long haul or you take your losses when you get out.