DON'T BUY

Fairly insulated from tariffs, it's more the economic exposure that is a risk. As markets get more volatile, revenue from its asset management side will go down if markets go down. Between MFC, SLF and GWO, he'd pick GWO.

WATCH

Growing very decisively. Done extremely well. A good way to get exposure to this is via POW.

BUY

Good way to get exposure to GWO lifeco. Essentially an asset manager that has positions in public and private companies. Trades at 25% discount to NAV, and GWO is about 70% of its NAV. Defensive way to play the space. Yielding slightly higher than GWO.

COMMENT
A preferred share coming close to reset with a yield above GIC rates.

BN.PF.H is what you're looking for. It's going to reset at the end of the year. Reset spread is 4.17. Add 4.17 to the BOC 5-year bond yield today (2.7%). That gives you almost 7% as the reset rate at the end of the year, if the BOC rate were to remain stable. One to consider, he owns a bunch. Brookfield's a very solid company.

COMMENT
Preferred shares -- when rates go down.

With rates going down, you could consider a fixed-rate preferred. He's been buying POW.PR.D, yielding about 6.1%. Beauty of it is that it doesn't reset, it's perpetual. So if the BOC moves rates lower, these preferred shares won't reset to a lower level. Gets more valuable as the BOC lowers interest rates.

COMMENT
Preferred shares -- when rates go down.

With rates going down, you could consider a fixed-rate preferred. He's been buying POW.PR.D, yielding about 6.1%. Beauty of it is that it doesn't reset, it's perpetual. So if the BOC moves rates lower, these preferred shares won't reset to a lower level. Gets more valuable as the BOC lowers interest rates.

COMMENT
Preferred shares with largest yield in perpetuity.

You'd be buying a fixed-rate preferred share. Those with the highest yields are definitely not the banks. You could try POW.PR.D, for example. With the non-banks, the credit quality is going to be lower that what a Canadian bank would be. You can search online for a table listing the comparable yields.

You have to be careful with the lower-quality issuers. Don't want to get caught offside, especially if this is your retirement money. The dividend yield you get is tax-advantaged if outside a registered plan. But remember that there's price volatility. If prices come off, prices will shoot up but won't benefit you much because your investment amount is going to go down. These are not like bonds that keep their stable price; instead, they fluctuate in value.

BUY

Likes the business and the story. Grows globally. Buys large, long-term strategic assets. Likes the way they structure their debt. Could do very well in this environment. Caught up a bit in the tariff noise. Buy assets, improve, sell at a premium, repeat. Capital intensive; as rates come down, value of assets should go up.

Disclaimer: Pretty tight with the CEO and some of the management team.

HOLD

Natural gas utility. Price of nat gas is volatile, and he didn't like that they didn't hedge the price. Nat gas price rolled over, and large dividend had to be cut in March 2024. Dividend is now skinny, with a yield ~2%, a much better strategy.

TOP PICK

Rebranded. Becoming a very large, global player in engineering and project management. Asset light. Not in construction anymore. Reasonable margins. Huge backlog. About $10B in revenue a year. Big infrastructure spending has to happen globally. Interest rates coming down is a good thing. Expertise in nuclear. Yield is 0.12%.

(Analysts’ price target is $91.23)
TOP PICK

Demographics is a huge tailwind. LTC component is a steady business and government-controlled; transitioning a bit away from this. Canada-only. The 85+ demographic is expected to triple in the next 25 years. Yield is 5.6%.

(Analysts’ price target is $18.58)
TOP PICK

Renewable power assets all across the US and Canada. Natural gas is big for them; also wind, solar, and battery. Numbers reported this morning came out well ahead (by 17%) of consensus. Managed costs effectively in the quarter. Likes the management team. Yield is 5.11%.

(Analysts’ price target is $64.73)
BUY

It reported today and shares tanked 5.66% today. This is a buying opportunity, because the CEO turned around Chipotle. Give him time; it's only been 6 months. The average wait time is much lower, under 4 minutes, and is investing more in people and less in machines. Same-store sales are rising and sales in China are higher than the previous quarter.

STRONG BUY

They reported a strong beat after the bell: 19% YOY EPS growth and 15% YOY revenue growth in a top and bottom line beat. Also, all three segments beat expectations, including intelligent cloud and Azure. Excellent results. Markets will rally tomorrow.

BUY

They reported a strong quarter after the bell: 37% YOY EPS growth and 19% YOY revenue growth. Q1 revenues beat as ad sales did not disappointment. Q2 guidance was in-line, and they raised their capex (which will benefit Nvidia).