Manulife ETFs in Mid-March 2025 and Politics

 

Politics are taking centre stage with the US continuing a tariff war with several countries in mid March, 2025.

Canada and China plus the EU are countering tariffs imposed by President Trump while Mexico is on the wait list until April. Trade negotiations continue with no positive outcome to date as US stock markets sank into correction territory in the market week ending March 14th but have recovered since then. 

Mr. Market doesn't like uncertainty with tariff threats but they are here and absorbed for now while figures and percentages continue to be jostled around from day to day.

Meanwhile, Power Corporation of Canada, POW will provide it's earnings report on the 20th of March with a current yield of 4.67%. POW.TO owns major shares in companies like Wealthsimple and Great-West Lifeco. 

POW.TO is one of the Globe and Mail's tariff fighting stocks recommend by Gordon Pape. He also likes Pembina Pipelines: PPL.TO and Emera: EMA.TO in a recent article. I own these stocks but as always, do your own homework when making stock picks.

POW's last dividend increase was last March in 2024. I'm interested to see what the 20th earning report reveals about the company's dividend with hopefully another increase for 2025 and the ex-dividend date which will be in the last week of March.

                                

                               

In last weeks sector report for Canada ... several Materials like gold miners and Utility stocks have been staying in the 'green' compared to other sectors from the past week with all the trade and tariff uncertainty. Gold is the talk these days at over 3,000 USD per ounce recently.

Agnico Eagle Mines, AEM.TO is one of those miners, where it's stock increased by 34% year to date. I personally do not own it but plan to soon. Partially, that is as the top holding (for now) by weight in the Manulife Smart Dividend ETF. Launched in 2020, CDIV has earned 12.80 since inception and pays a quarterly distribution with a yield near 4%. with a 4 star Morningstar rating.

TD Bank, TD.TO is 2nd highest in weighting at this time, a stock I do own.

Getting into 'monthly' distributions, the Manulife Smart "Enhanced" Yield Dividend ETF, CYLD is similar to CDIV but has Canadian Treasury Bills as it's top holdings with a higher management fee where there's more active involvement which comes with a note:

Holdings are subject to change. They are not recommendations to buy or sell any security.

Heading down into the US... UYLD.B is the enhanced version of the Manulife Smart U.S. Dividend ETF, UDIV.B (unhedged units) where I may keep that one on my Watchlist for now where the US exchanges Nasdaq and the S&P 500 have headed into correction territory recently, although recovered today. Certainly volatile times but some holdings may not be affected by tariffs individually thinking long term.

One has to look beyond the yield and focus on an ETF's holdings, performance and management fee along with other metrics like covered-calls, etc. High trading volume is a plus where it can show an ETF as being popular with interested investors.

Ex-dividend dates for the big banks of Canada are coming up over the next few weeks and CIBC, CM.TO is scheduled for the 28th of March and I'll be buying more with a 4.75% yield followed by the Bank of Nova Scotia, BNS.TO with a 6.09% yield on the 1st of April.

To add to those dividends, I've been buying ZWB, BMO Covered Calls Canadian Banks ETF with a current yield of 6.70% and pays monthly distributions but by owning the banks individually there's that yearly dividend increase (Except BNS with no increase since July 2023) and no management fees with possible stock price growth depending with what's going on each quarter of a given year. 

The current tariff war, depending how long it drags on for will probably weigh on the big banks of Canada which have and will probably set aside more funds for business and personal loan defaults with companies most affected by possible restructures and/or having to layoff workers, The Federal Government has announced it will assist financially where needed based on approvals for companies applying.

After the pandemic and the high interest rates that followed, I'm confident the Big Banks can deal with what's going on now and issues in the future.

The Modified BTSX Portfolio

 

It's confusing times as President Trump changes his mind every other day about 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico. Meanwhile, he doesn't like it but Canada added a first phase of 25% tariffs and so far ... has kept them in place since March 4th waiting on Trump's next move. Partial, different rates and reciprocal? All this has the businesses effected on both sides of the border seeing a foggy course ahead until there's some clarity to it all.

I was delaying writing this post expecting the tariff issue to be set for awhile from March 4th but it's ever changing and hopefully not for the 4 years of Trump's term. Then there's the ... I want Canada and Greenland. Oh my.

As expected, the Markets don't like it and have fallen amid a lot of selling. I'm long term so staying the course. Usually during these times, some stocks I hold and those I'm interested in, fall in price so ripe for further buying. The "Buy Low" always on my mind.

In the February 2025 Canadian Money Saver Magazine, there is an update article from Matt Poyner about Beat The TSX, or BTSX strategy. I adopted that strategy shown on his site, DividendStrategy.ca a few years back but in a modified form where I buy monthly and not the top ten in equal amounts and hold for a year. 

It works but doesn't always beat the TSX every year but over the long term with dividends included. it does. For 2024, BTSX gained 16.19% with dividends. Decent in my books while compared with the TSX 60 in the XIU ETF came in at 20.56% with dividends. 

Probably a worthy addition alongside the BTSX portfolio, Blackrock's XIU ... iShares S&P/TSX 60 Index ETF.

As Matt writes, do your own due diligence where I go through the list plus down thru the top twenty dividend paying stocks and beyond on the TSX. I filter out those I'm not interested in. For example, I never owned Algonquin Power, AQN from the start. I sold BCE last year when all the grumbling started with the company and possible dividend cuts coming. Instead, I picked companies further down the list I mention regularly on this Blog.

Moving forward, on the 14th of February, Canadian Natural Resources, CNQ.TO has an ex-dividend date and recently increased their dividend by 4.44% with a current yield of 5.63%.

I'll be buying more shares of South Bow, SOBO.TO in the latter half of this month with an ex-dividend date of March 31st, 2025

There's lots of articles and posts about oil prices swaying more than usual these days with Trump, OPEC possibly increasing production and the US 10% tariff on Canadian oil. That will weigh on Companies in that sector depending what's going on from day to day. South Bow pays their dividend in US dollars so I receive the CAD conversion much like oil companies in Canada which sell their oil in the US and convert some or all to CAD in their accounts.

On "Cut the Crap Investing" with link shown in the right sidebar here, I seen Tourmaline Oil, TOU.TO mentioned a few times and a stock held by Dale Roberts, the author.

In the news recently, I read TOU had a decent quarterly report and cash flow. Their base dividend has been increased by 43% along with a special dividend payment for this quarter. March 14th is the ex-dividend date but to receive the special dividend, shares need to be bought before closing on the 13th of March.

Mid month March is coming up fast and then I'll be looking at the big banks of Canada with the Bank of Nova Scotia, BNS.TO first up on my radar for further buying. 

I'm also looking at two high yield ETFs which surprised me from Manulife, MFC.TO where they are more about moderate to low yield. I'll debate about adding CYLD: Manulife Smart Enhanced Yield ETF and UYLD: Manulife Smart US Enhanced Yield ETF  These ETFs would be more for income and monthly distributions to add cash for buying more core stock holdings.

Interesting weighting with the Holdings starting with Treasury Bills and then lower weighting into some solid companies. More about Manulife's ETFs in my next post.