Investment Products: Canadian Equity - Product Details

Large Cap Equity
Our Large Cap Equity product selects, primarily, from the largest 60 companies within the S&P/TSX Composite. The portfolio will, generally, hold a minimum of 80% of its weight within the top 60 companies. All holdings will be selected from the top 100 names.

As with all our Canadian Equity products, our investment style is growth-at-a-reasonable-price (GARP).

The overall emphasis combines a bottom-up view (approximately 80%) with a top-down view (approximately 20%). Individual security selection in based on in-depth knowledge of each company within the Guardian Large Cap Eligible Universe through a proprietary screening process. Our top-down approach includes a thematic (i.e., demographics, technology, globalization, etc.) outlook for the economic, social and political trends which might affect the market as a whole and the underlying sectors, industries and securities within the market.

Risk management is an integral part of the decision-making process. We seek out companies which have strong balance sheets, superior management teams and a catalyst which will have a positive impact on price performance over time. For all of our Canadian equity products combined, we conduct over 700 management interviews annually.

Core Equity
Our Core Equity product is designed as a well-diversified portfolio by sector/industry and security selection. Our investment style is growth-at-a-reasonable-price.

We seek out companies which have the potential to grow sales (top-down) and earnings (bottom-up) faster than the economy, faster than their peer group and faster than the market as a whole. We focus on companies which will provide a fairly stable and predictable earnings path in the future.

The overall emphasis combines a bottom-up view (approximately 80%) with a top-down view (approximately 20%). Individual security selection is based on in-depth knowledge of each company within the Guardian Core Eligible Universe through a proprietary screening process. Our top-down approach includes a thematic (i.e., demographics, technology, globalization, etc.) outlook for the economic, social and political trends which might affect the market as a whole and the underlying sectors, industries and securities within the market.

Risk management is an integral part of the decision-making process. We seek out companies which have strong balance sheets, superior management teams and a catalyst which will have a positive impact on price performance over time. For all of our Canadian equity products combined, we conduct over 700 management interviews annually.

Extended Core Equity
Our Extended Core Equity has the same attributes as our Core product with one exception: whereas the Core Eligible Universe consists of, primarily, the largest 125 companies within the S&P/TSX Composite, our Extended Core product adds approximately another 50 names to the Guardian Extended Core Eligible Universe, thereby resulting in a slightly lower average capitalization bias.

Canadian Growth Equity
Our Canadian Growth product is designed as a slightly more concentrated portfolio of attractive growth stocks. There is a higher emphasis on growth within the mandate versus that for Core, Extended Core and Large Cap.

We seek out companies which have the potential to grow sales (top-down) and earnings (bottom-up) faster than the economy, faster than their peer group and faster than the market as a whole. We focus on companies which will provide a fairly stable and predictable earnings path in the future.

The overall emphasis combines a bottom-up view (approximately 80%) with a top-down view (approximately 20%). Individual security selection in based on in-depth knowledge of each company within the Guardian Premium Growth Eligible Universe through a proprietary screening process. Our top-down approach includes a thematic (i.e., demographics, technology, globalization, etc.) outlook for the economic, social and political trends which might affect the market as a whole and the underlying sectors, industries and securities within the market.

Risk management is an integral part of the decision-making process. We seek out companies which have strong balance sheets, superior management teams and a catalyst which will have a positive impact on price performance over time. For all of our Canadian equity products combined, we conduct over 700 management interviews annually.

Small/Mid Cap Equity
Our Small/Mid Cap Equity product includes stocks from companies listed below the 125th name within the S&P/TSX Composite. This product line has the highest emphasis on growth among our five Canadian Equity products due to the nature of this segment of the marketplace.

We seek out companies which have the potential to grow sales (top-down) and earnings (bottom-up) faster than the economy, faster than their peer group and faster than the market as a whole. We focus on companies which will provide a fairly stable and predictable earnings path in the future.

The overall emphasis combines a bottom-up view (approximately 90%) with a top-down view (approximately 10%). Individual security selection in based on in-depth knowledge of each company within the Guardian Small/Mid Cap Eligible Universe through a proprietary screening process. Our top-down approach includes a thematic (i.e., demographics, technology, globalization, etc.) outlook for the economic, social and political trends which might affect the market as a whole and the underlying sectors, industries and securities within the market.

Risk management is an integral part of the decision-making process. We seek out companies which have strong balance sheets, superior management teams and a catalyst which will have a positive impact on price performance over time. For all of our Canadian equity products combined, we conduct over 700 management interviews annually.

Income Trust Units
Our main objective is to select those quality income trusts with the following characteristics: stable revenue and cash flow, strong balance sheet, barriers to entry, low capital expenditure requirements, diversified customer base – with focused management and strategies.

We believe our thorough analysis and disciplined approach should enable us to select well-managed and well-positioned trusts that consistently distribute income on a monthly basis.

We provide broad diversification with 40 to 50 holdings from two sectors: 1) Interest- Sensitive Trusts, consisting of Reits and Power/Pipeline Trusts; and 2) Economically- Sensitive Trusts, consisting of Business Trusts and Resource Trusts. We adjust the asset mix based on our outlook for the economy, interest rates and commodities.

We believe that the steady distribution growth and relatively low price volatility of our product should provide an excellent risk/reward ratio for conservative investors.