Friday, February 10, 2012 8:23 PM EST
How venture capital funds have fared over the long haul
SHIRLEY WON
What are we looking for?
Retail venture capital funds that have made a profit over eight years.
We chose this period because investors need to hold these securities – also known as labour-sponsored investment funds – for eight years to get federal and provincial tax credits.
| Leaders and Laggards among Retail Venture Capital Funds over Eight Years | ||
| Fund |
Latest MER |
Assets (in $ mil.) |
| Best eight performers | ||
| Covington Venture Fund IV-New Mill. | 4.28 | 6.0 |
| SaskWorks Venture Fund Inc. | 5.03 | 189.5 |
| Source: Globe Investor, company reports | ||
Link to this postThursday, February 9, 2012 8:21 PM EST
An alluring mix of stability and profits
NICOLAS JOHNSON
What are we looking for
Stocks that would appeal to a conservative investor looking for a bit of income.
Thursday, February 9, 2012 6:17 AM EST
A hunting ground for high-yield stocks
NICOLAS JOHNSON
What are we looking for?
Companies that pay high dividends and are neither in the traditional oil, gas, power and pipeline industries, nor are real-estate-investment trusts.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 8:08 PM EST
The momentum approach to stock-picking
IAN MCGUGAN
What are we looking for?
Momentum. Stocks that are going up have a tendency to keep on going up – at least for the short term.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 2:43 PM EST
The January effect: Small was beautiful
SHIRLEY WON
What are we looking for?
Canadian small- and mid-cap equity funds that benefited from the tendency of stocks to rise in the first month of the year. This “January effect” is usually strongest among small-caps, which tend to rally after year-end selling for tax-loss purposes, especially in cases where funds dump them to “window dress” portfolios by getting rid of laggards.
| How Canadian Small to Mid Cap Equity Funds Fared in January, 2012 | ||
| Fund | MER |
Assets ($ mil.) |
| Norrep II Class-A* | 5.73 | 155.1 |
| AlphaNorth Growth Fund Series A* | n/a | 8.9 |
| Sprott All Cap* | 3.60 | 14.9 |
| *Can charge performance fees on top of MER. Source: Globe Investor, Bloomberg, companies | ||
Thursday, February 2, 2012 8:07 PM EST
Mining for attractive acquisition targets
IAN MCGUGAN
What are we looking for?
Pay dirt for global miners.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012 8:00 PM EST
Most popular stocks: the analyst edition
DARCY KEITH
What are we looking for?
The most popular stocks in Canada. There could be a number of ways to try to measure this, such as finding stocks that are the most widely held, those garnering the most positive press coverage, or trending the most in social media. But to crown the winners of our popularity contest today, we’re going to take a fresh approach that focuses on two variables: the number of sell-side analysts who cover a stock, and those companies that have seen the greatest percentage change in earnings estimate revisions for the current year over the past 28 days.
Friday, February 10, 2012 6:20 PM EST
A marathon test for value stocks
IAN MCGUGAN
What are we looking for?
The pentathletes of the value-investing world. These are stocks that excel not just in one category that appeals to bargain hunters, but in several.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012 8:01 PM EST
Looking for best-in-class U.S. stocks
IAN MCGUGAN
What are we looking for?
Last week, we focused on Canadian industry leaders. Today we take our search for promising stocks on the road and spotlight larger U.S. firms that stand out among their peers for both their demonstrated ability to grow and the rising expectations around them.
| U.S. Industry Leaders that Show Growth at Reasonable Valuations | ||
| Company | Symbol |
Price US$ (Jan. 27) |
| Apple Inc. | AAPL-Q | 447.28 |
| Celgene Corp. | CELG-Q | 73.37 |
| CF Industries Hldg Inc. | CF-N | 179.59 |
| All factors measured relative to industry medians. Grades relative to 2,295 securities in the CPMS U.S. database. Source: Morningstar Canada | ||
Friday, January 27, 2012 7:56 PM EST
Hunger for yield fuels REIT funds’ rise
SHIRLEY WON
What are we looking for?
A sense of how real estate equity funds fared in 2011, given that stock markets struggled during the year.
Some of the funds we examined invest mainly in Canadian real estate investment trusts (REITs), while others buy a mix of global real estate securities.
| How Real Estate Equity Funds Fared in 2011 | ||
| Fund | MER |
Assets ($ mil.) |
| Criterion REIT Income Fund | 2.5 | |
| iShares S&P/TSX Capped REIT Index | 0.55 | 1310.2 |
| BMO Equal Weight REITs Index ETF | 147.3 | |
| *Launched in June, 2011. Source: Globe Investors, companies, Bloomberg | ||
Number Cruncher Contributors
Scott Adams
Scott Adams is the Executive Editor for Report On Business. He was previously the Managing Editor of Globe Investor. He has been a business journalist for more than 12 years and also worked as an associate analyst on Bay Street.
Rob Carrick
Rob Carrick has been writing about personal finance, business and economics for close to 20 years. He joined The Globe and Mail in late 1996 as an investment reporter and has been personal finance columnist since November 1998.
He writes the Saturday Portfolio Strategy column, is the host of the Let's Talk Investing video series, compiles a Personal Finance Reader newsletter two times per week, blogs daily, and is author of the annual Globe Investor Online Broker Rankings.
He also wrote Rob Carrick's Guide to What's Good, Bad and Downright Ugly in Canadian Investments Today.
Follow him on Facebook (www.facebook.com/robcarrickfinance) or Twitter (@rcarrick)
John Heinzl
John Heinzl has been writing about business and investing since 1990. A native of Hamilton, he earned a master’s degree from the University of Western Ontario’s Graduate School of Journalism and completed the Canadian Securities Course with honours. His weekly Yield Hog columns explore the world of dividend stocks, bonds and other income-producing securities, and his explanatory Investor Clinic columns and videos aim to inform and educate investors who want to take control of their money. He also writes the irreverent Stars and Dogs feature that appears every Saturday in Report on Business and contributes car reviews to Globe Drive.
David Parkinson
David Parkinson has been covering business and financial markets since 1990, and has been with The Globe and Mail since 2000. A Calgary native, he received a Southam Fellowship from the University of Toronto in 1999-2000, studying international political economics.
Shirley Won
Shirley Won covers the fund industry and investments. She joined the Globe and Mail in 1996, and has also worked at the Montreal Gazette and Canadian Press.
Simon Avery
Simon Avery has covered telecom and technology for the Globe since 2004. Previously, he was a staff reporter for The Associated Press in Los Angeles and for The Wall Street Journal in San Francisco. He covered the boom and bust in Silicon Valley for the Financial Post between 1998 and 2001. Mr. Avery holds a Master's degree in journalism from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts in English and political science from the University of Western Ontario.
Nicolas Johnson
Nicolas Johnson has covered global finance, markets and investing since 1998. He joined The Globe and Mail in 2011. He has worked as a reporter and editor with Bloomberg News in Paris and Tokyo, and also worked briefly in emerging-market debt at Société Générale. Nicolas has a Bachelor of Arts from Queen’s University and a Master of Arts from Sorbonne University in France.
Jody White
Jody White is a web editor for Globe Investor. He previously worked as a senior editor at Canadian Business Online and has written for Maclean's, the National Post, and other national newspapers and magazines on topics from business to human rights to institutional investing.
Darcy Keith
Darcy Keith has been a business journalist since 1992 and joined the Report on Business in 2010 from Yahoo! Canada, where he was the senior editor of finance.
Previously, he was the business editor for CanWest News Service and has covered markets of all stripes for various wire services and publications, including as a correspondent for Knight-Ridder Financial News. He has worked as a reporter and editor in New York, Hong Kong, Vancouver, Winnipeg and Toronto.
Sonali Verma
Sonali Verma is digital editor at the Report on Business. She has worked as a reporter, editor and producer of business news at Reuters, CNBC and Bloomberg News since 1995. Before moving to Toronto, she worked in New Delhi, London, Hong Kong, Singapore and Manila.
