Stockchase Opinions

Larry Berman CFA, CMT, CTA Brand Leaders Plus Income HBF-T BUY Jul 23, 2018

Compared to ZWA-T, it has a covered call overlay also and they have performed pretty identically. If you go back more than 3-5 years then HBF-T has underperformed. Either one are strategies he would like to own.

$9.300

Stock price when the opinion was issued

E.T.F.'s
It's the ideal tool to help you make quicker, more informed decisions for managing and tracking your investments.

You might be interested:

COMMENT

A US ETF that corresponds to this ETF? There are a number of ETF’s in the US that do covered calls. (See Top Picks.)

COMMENT

It is a brand leader. It looks a lot like the DOW and is quite correlated to it. It is more of an equally weighted way to play it and there are some option strategies within it.

COMMENT

Harvest has a number of interesting products, basically Covered Calls. The returns they are getting seem to be higher than some other companies Covered Call ETF’s. But they are only doing it on 25% of the portfolio, whereas the Bank of Montréal is doing it on 50%. He wants to talk to them to see what they are up to. 7.3% yield.

COMMENT

All of them are thinly traded and which one is recommended. Which one you select depends on specific situations. HBF-T is their brand product, looking at high quality brand leaders – names you know. They tend to be good dividend payers. It is a pretty decent size. The other two are good quality companies also. Be careful of a small ETF that has only been out a couple of years.

WEAK BUY
It's equal weight and balanced with some banks, some tech and some consumer discretionary, which is a good, balanced spread and not as value-heavy as other tech-weighted ETFs. This is pretty good. He sees an L-, not V-recovery, so be careful. Some covered calls here offers a little extra income and a little downside protection.
COMMENT
They take a group of US stocks and write options on them and get some great returns. He has not used them because he is more focused on growth rather than enhanced income. Certainly they have a good product but the fees are higher than he wants to pay. The calls put a cap on the growth. He only goes 10-15% of the client's portfolio in these kinds of ETFs.
BUY
Trevor Rose’s Insights - Trevor’s most-liked answers from 5i Research

We like HBF for income. It was hit hard in 2022, with returns of negative14.67%, so it is definitely not immune to volatility in the greater markets. It does however hold some of the world’s top brands which should show long term staying power, and it should do well in a interest-rate-pivot recovery. Management fee is 0.96% which is fairly high for an income-focused fund. Five year return is 8.42%, which is decent. Its top holdings are alll well-know US consumer brand companies. 
Unlock Premium - Try 5i Free