Each week, our team publishes a blog and webcast.
Always invest in the company, never in the person. Eyebrows were raised earlier this month when the Royal Bank of Canada published a late Friday press release saying: “RBC was recently made aware of allegations involving [the Chief Financial Officer] and immediately launched an internal review and engaged outside legal counsel to investigate. The investigation […]
Starting in June, Canada will move first to cut rates and the cost of borrowing will decline by more than the US in 2024. In addition to yesterday’s stronger than expected US inflation report, employment figures released last Friday in Canada and the US shed additional light on two very different realities. While the US […]
Is it just me or did the glory days of Apple seem to die with Steve Jobs? Apple’s iMac (1998), iPod (2001), iPhone (2007), and iPad (2010) were revolutionary products when first introduced. Each were unique, customer-friendly, and attached a superior graphical interface compared to the alternative devices at the time. Jobs died in October […]
While less dramatic than a corporate raider from the 1980’s waltzing into a shareholder meeting, proclaiming that “greed is good”, and hurling threats to sell an underperforming company for a quick profit, many activist investors work quietly to change companies. Activism is on the rise. In 2022, there were just about fifty activist campaigns in […]
Initiating a dividend introduces a stock to a much larger investor base. This is because some institutional fund managers have restrictions on the kinds of stocks they can and cannot buy. Without a steady stream of income, some investment mandates will simply pass. In most sectors, declaring a dividend offers assurance that the board of […]
During the fall, over 90 high-ranking business executives expressed concern in an open letter that Canada’s largest pension funds should bulk up their investment positions here at home. The eight largest pension funds – also known as the “Maple 8” – manage 38% of Canada’s savings. Yet, that collective group has reduced their holdings of […]
Manulife Financial’s stock has had its ups and downs since the initial public offering (“IPO”) in 1999. Everything was going well during its first decade as a public company. After acquiring Confederation Life and North American Life in the mid-1990s, Manulife then bought Boston-based John Hancock Financial Services for $15 billion in 2004. At the […]
Anyone with a diversified portfolio will tell you that a handful of stocks perform far better than your wildest dreams; a good chunk do better than the market; some underperform; and a select few have such awful performance that you’re afraid to look at the price each day. Estee Lauder falls into the very latter […]
Earlier this week, Rogers v. Rogers by the Globe & Mail’s Alexandra Posadzki was released. It chronicles all the drama you would expect to find in a family business. Rogers Communications (“Rogers”) is dual listed. In other words, it has Class A voting shares and Class B non-voting shares. Prior to his death in 2008, Ted […]
Wow, Schneider & Pollock Wealth Management Inc. (“SPWMI”) just turned 2 years old! February 1, 2022, was the day our principal regular (the Ontario Securities Commission) approved SPWMI’s application. That same day, so too did the provincial regulators in Alberta and Nova Scotia. Since then, British Columbia has done the same. Most don’t realize it, […]
