Guardian Capital has assumed the sub-advisory role for the Horizons Dividend ETF, which trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) under the ticker symbols HAL and HAL.A.
The investment objective of Horizons HAL is to seek long-term total returns consisting of regular dividend income and modest long-term capital growth. Horizons HAL invests primarily in equity securities of major North American companies with above average dividend yields.
AlphaPro is the manager and trustee of Horizons HAL, and its affiliate Horizons Investment Management Inc., the investment manager of the Horizons HAL, is responsible for implementing the investment strategies and overseeing the services of Guardian Capital.
Guardian Capital’s Srikanth Iyer, Managing Director, Head of Systematic Strategies, Sam Baldwin, Portfolio Manager and Fiona Wilson, Portfolio Manager, will take on lead portfolio management responsibilities. They are supported by Guardian Capital’s Systematic Equities Investment Team, which is comprised of a number of experienced investment professionals who focus on both the quantitative and qualitative aspects of stock selection.
This same portfolio management team is currently responsible for managing the Horizons Global Dividend ETF (HAZ/HAZ.A:TSX), one of the best performing dividend-focused ETF mandates in Canada since its inception in July of 2010.
“Srikanth and the team at Guardian Capital have done an exceptional job running the Horizons Global Dividend ETF using their proprietary Growth Payout and Sustainability or GPS stock selection process. GPS systematically selects stocks that best allocate their generated cash in a shareholder friendly way. We like the fact that it uniquely combines sophisticated quantitative analysis with a traditional team-refined approach towards portfolio management,” says Howard Atkinson (pictured), CEO of Horizons ETFs. “In Horizons HAL, they will now be applying this same outside-in thinking strategy to the Canadian universe of dividend stocks with the goal of outperforming the broader Canadian dividend stock market.”
