Sometimes bad things happen to good companies. The latest example is the scandal surrounding SNC Lavalin and its dealings in Libya. With the collapse of the Gaddafi regime news of possible irregularities is emerging, and the stock has paid a heavy price. On Feb. 28th and 29th the shares dropped by over 22% on news […]
We’re all fans of dividends now. Record low interest rates are here to stay and as a result, many investors have jumped on the dividend bandwagon. I don’t blame them, companies that have predictable revenue streams, great balance sheets and a history of rising dividend payments should be the cornerstone of any portfolio. But many […]
Cash is king, or so they say. That phrase permeated op-eds and television broadcasts amid the 2008 credit crisis and throughout the recent European debt fiasco. Typing those very words into a search engine yields over 15 million results, most of which were written during periods of high market volatility. In reality, cash is anything but king. In […]
When I studied economics in university, we were taught that people are rational, fully informed, and always act to optimize their self interest. This being the case, certain assumptions could be safely made, and thus projections about how the economy would perform. Over the past almost four decades since I graduated, economists have demonstrated a […]
After languishing in $60 range for most of 2011, CP Rail’s stock exploded higher in December on news that activist hedge fund, Pershing Square, acquired a material position in the stock. Pershing’s goal is to shake-up the management at CP, by installing Hunter Harrison as CEO. Hunter is a legend in the railroad business. As […]
With the Toronto Stock Exchange down 11.1% in 2011, few investors made money last year. It would have been much worse without the strong appreciation from dividend-paying stocks in the Utilities, Telecom, and Real Estate sectors. After all, almost half the exchange is comprised of Materials and Energy companies. Because clients at Baskin Financial Services […]