Is Your Stock Portfolio Prepared for a Market Crash?

There’s a number of things you can do now for your portfolio, including ensuring you have stocks such as Loblaw Companies Ltd. (TSX:L).

Kay Ng

Author Bio

Kay graduated from the University of British Columbia with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and furthered her studies in financial markets, finance, and financial accounting. She began investing in dividend stocks in 2008, turning an early interest into a lasting passion. Over the years, Kay has refined her investment approach to focus on high-quality businesses, using fundamental analysis and valuation to identify long-term investment opportunities. Her investment research and articles have been featured in The Motley Fool, Sure Dividend, and Seeking Alpha. Outside of investing, Kay enjoys playing the piano, from popular songs learned by ear to challenging classical compositions. Her favourites include Fantaisie-Impromptu by Frédéric Chopin and La Campanella by Franz Liszt.

Education

Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Computer Science, University of British Columbia
Further studies in financial markets, finance, and financial accounting

Areas of Expertise

Dividend stocks, fundamental analysis, company valuation, quality investing, long-term investing, business fundamentals, and identifying investment opportunities in high-quality companies.

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Favorite Investment Quotes

“The best way to measure your investing success is not by whether you’re beating the market but by whether you’ve put in place a financial plan and a behavioral discipline that are likely to get you where you want to go.” — Benjamin Graham “A market downturn doesn’t bother us. It is an opportunity to increase our ownership of great companies with great management at good prices.” — Warren Buffett

Published June 30, 2018 9:00 am EDT

We have been in a bull market for nine years. Historically, every 10 years or so, we would experience a market crash for whatever reason.

The crash of 2008 was triggered by subprime mortgages in the United States. This was something that wasn’t foreseen by many. However, there are things that we can do now to prepare our stock portfolios for future market crashes.

First, make sure you own businesses that remained profitable or, better yet, thrived during the last crash. Second, decide if you need to position your portfolio to be more defensive, given that we’re close to that 10-year mark.

Businesses that remained profitable in the last crash

Start by thinking about businesses that offer essential products and services that we use every day. You might think of electricity, gas, the internet, mobile phones, housing, banking services, food, etc.

So, Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. (TSX: AQN)(NYSE: AQN), Telus Corporation (TSX: T)(NYSE: TU), InterRent Real Estate Investment Trust (TSX: IIP.UN), Bank of Nova Scotia (TSX: BNS)(NYSE: BNS), and Loblaw Companies Ltd. (TSX: L) is a good list of companies to begin your research.

Hold low-beta stocks

To make your portfolio more defensive, it could mean putting a bigger focus on stocks that tend to be less volatile than the market. Algonquin, Telus, InterRent, and Loblaw fit this description by having low betas. Surprisingly, Bank of Nova Scotia stock does not.

Hold dividend stocks with growth

Bank of Nova Scotia adds defensiveness in a different way — it offers a very comforting dividend yield of almost 4.4%. Its stable earnings and safe payout ratio assures a solid dividend that can withstand any storm.

The reliable long-term growth of the company has also led to increasing dividends over time. You can probably expect dividend growth of 5-8% per year for the next few years.

Build a cash position

If you’re really worried about a crash, save up more cash, perhaps 10%, 20%, or even 30% of your portfolio — basically, whatever percentage you feel comfortable with.

There is an opportunity cost for putting cash on the sidelines. However, you should not feel like you have to invest every dollar when you don’t see enough bargains lying around.

Stocks that are potentially undervalued

Algonquin looks undervalued from a price-to-cash-flow basis and offers a nearly 5.2% dividend yield.

Loblaw also looks undervalued given that it tends to command a premium price-to-earnings multiple. Since it acquired Shoppers Drug Mart, Loblaw stock has had a normal multiple of about 17.6, while at below $68 per share, it trades at a multiple of about 14.9.

Reasons for Loblaw’s discounted valuation include increased labour costs and healthcare reform, which will cut into its profitability and curb near-term growth. Over time, the largest retailer in Canada should be able to adjust to the new normal. Now is the best time to buy Loblaw stock since 2012.