Monday, August 18, 2025

Mid August 2025 and the Financial Insurance Sector

 

It's another quarter in a year when the bulk of my Lifeco holdings have ex-dividend dates and I don't dwell about further buying, just how much. Unlike the Telecom sector where the Canadian Feds recently ruffled the feathers of some big name companies like Bell, allowing Telus to expand into Ontario and Quebec and fretting about forced capital spending while debt runs higher with more selling of assets. Kind of like dragging a ball and chain slowing progress while dealing with regulations and government overisght.

Meanwhile, onwards with my trio of Lifeco stocks.

With good numbers posted in the 2nd quarter results for Manulife Financial, I'll be further buying MFC.TO today with a 1 year share price increase of 20%. The dividend yield is a current 4.19%, 

It's a good opportunity to buy the dip with Sun Life Financial, SLF.TO with an ex-dividend date of August 27, 2025. Sun Life continues to expand in Asia and therefore boosting it's business. The only downer in the 2nd quarter report was in their US dental arm. Less Medicaid approvals for dental work is the underlying issue which has been in the news about the changing US medical approval policy down south. A period of adjustment for the people needing that vital health coverage in the US.

I look at Sun Life as another foundation stock in my portfolio like Forts. I expect it to regain the approximate $5+ CAD per share it recently lost due to the short term investor sentiment over the recent quarterly report.

Last but not least is Great-West Lifeco, majority owned by Power Corporation, POW.TO, reported record base earnings for the 2nd quarter. With a current 4.49% yield, I won't hesitate in buying more shares in this company with an ex-dividend date of August 29th.

A quote by the late Charlie Munger I seen come up in many an article I agree with. "The big money is not in the buying and selling, but in the waiting." 

Case in point, Globe and Mail's John Heinzl and his model portfolio, made up of stocks he owns personally except the iShares ETF XIU. The Yield Hog Dividend Growth Portfolio with an initial invest of 100 grand in 2017 has doubled the portfolio's income and continues to grow. Recent additional purchases from cash are two stocks I own, TD.TO and MFC.TO plus Restaurant Brands International (think Tim Hortons and Burger King among others) QSR.TO which I don't own but looking it over although yield is lower than I normally get into.

Thanks to a 6-per-cent dividend hike from Capital Power Corp. (CPX) on July 30, the portfolio’s annual income has now officially doubled since inception.

When I launched the portfolio with $100,000 of virtual money on Oct. 1, 2017, it was throwing off $4,094 of income annually based on dividend rates at the time. Owing to scores of dividend increases and regular re-investments of cash over the years, it’s now generating $8,199 of income – an increase of 100 per cent.

Early in September, when I'm looking forward to the hopefully cooling temps and less humidity living here near the Atlantic Ocean, Suncor, SU.TO comes to mind and big oil in Canada. 

In the telecom sector I mentioned at the beginning of this article, I won't be buying more shares in Telus, T.TO. in September. Selling cell towers, laying off people, looking for partners for funding future infrastructure projects is a sign they are over the top in debt although the CEO says they have a plan to make it manageable. I'll be watching and when I get into too much pondering about a stock ... I debate about selling it but hold off for now.

It's wise not to set and forget a portfolio plan but watch for issues/red flags. Better to sell and shuffle the funds into another prospect or current holding when the same stock keeps popping up as worrisome. The plan needs some tweaking from time to time.


 

Tuesday, August 5, 2025

Quarterly Reports in August, 2025

 

In Canada, the Liberals and Big Oil are planning ahead to ship more oil and natural gas to Asia and projects have been submitted to the Feds about connecting Western Canada pipelines to the East Coast to supply Europe. 

The pipeline ends in Quebec City and a connection to a New Brunswick existing natural gas pipeline would be a start but there's lots of red tape and environmental hurdles to overcome. 

Meanwhile and as the 2nd quarterly reports come in for my stocks, Enbridge, ENB.TO had a good report and mentions it's pipelines are shipping to capacity with contracts waiting from other companies. An excellent position to be in from my point of view with the oversupply.

ENB.TO is near it's previous 52 week high and has an ex-dividend date of August 15th with a current 5.92% yield. One of the more popular dividend paying companies by yield rank in the TSX 60.

Adding to Enbridge, I'll be buying more Fortis, FTS.TO, which also had a decent 2nd quarter report as expected, being spread across North America and beyond. The utility has a dividend yield of 3.63% currently with an ex-dividend date being August 19th, 2025. One of my original foundation stocks although trading close to 52 week highs as a cautionary note where it could pull back in price.

Browsing through the numbers in quarterly reports, I'm interested in forward guidance for the rest of 2025 and beyond, if it's provided. Fortis is in a good position to profit from data center power generation and is looking at the natural gas export sector in British Colombia. Billions on hand to further build their business. Then there's the power rate increases passed on to customers, depending on approval by regulation authorities. More money in their coffers after expenses with approved rate hikes.



The first LNG gas carrier, GasLog Glasgow departed the LNG terminal at Kitimat, Canada, on June 30, officially marking Canada’s entry into the export market. The LNG Canada project had been gearing up in recent weeks and began the first loading over the weekend, which opens a critical market for Asia to obtain LNG from Canada

I pick up the Canadian MoneySaver magazine when I browse through the local bookstores.

Inside the cover is the latest updates on their Canadian MneySaver Model ETF Portfolio. On that same page is the handy Dividend and Company News about dividend increases and the rare but unwanted dividend cuts such as the recent BCE.TO for example.

The model etf portfolio has 14 ETFs with many I see come up in articles and blogs. Combined the portfolio has a 149.95% increase since October, 2013 with a variety of index, tech, bond and covered call ETFs. 

Among those, I own ZWU, BMO Covered Call Utilities which holds Enbridge and Fortis in it's current top 5 holdings among US and Canadian stocks such as Verizon, VZ, I have been watching as an individual stock to buy. ZWU has a current 7.50% yield and adds monthly distributions to my portfolio. An alternative to buying the stocks with many at their yearly highs with buy low in mind when possible.

In the 2nd half of August, I'll be looking at Manulife Financial, MFC.TO and Great-West Lifeco, GWO.TO with a 1 year gain of 26% among other stocks and ETFs of interest.




 

Mid August 2025 and the Financial Insurance Sector

  It's another quarter in a year when the bulk of my Lifeco holdings have ex-dividend dates and I don't dwell about further buying, ...