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Volatility continues, which is something we welcome with open arms when it comes to putting together this monthly collection of our five favourite stocks to buy now. Because, if there’s a theme to pull through this month’s group, it’s that all these stocks are cheaper than they were not all that long ago. Yet, the prospects ahead of each are as robust as ever, and that’s a combination that’s music to the ears for long-term investors.

Foolishly yours,
Iain Butler
Advisor, Stock Advisor Canada

Brookfield Corporation (TSX: BN) is arguably Canada’s most consequential investment firm — a global alternative asset manager and owner-operator of real assets spanning infrastructure, renewable energy, real estate, private equity, and credit. What makes Brookfield Corp., aka “The Mother Ship,” distinct from its listed affiliates (BAM, BEP, BIP) is that it holds meaningful stakes in all of them, plus a large and growing insurance and wealth solutions platform, giving investors a diversified compounding machine in a single share.

Brookfield’s February 2026 full-year results were the strongest in the company’s history. Distributable earnings before realizations reached US$5.4 billion (up 11% per share) while fee-related earnings from its asset management business grew 22% to US$3.0 billion, driven by a record US$112 billion in new capital inflows during 2025. The board responded by raising the quarterly dividend 17%, and the company also repurchased over US$1 billion of its own shares during the year.

The most exciting near-term catalyst is Brookfield’s aggressive positioning in AI infrastructure. In late 2025, it launched the Brookfield AI Infrastructure Fund with a US$10 billion equity target—and immediately secured US$5 billion in commitments from partners including NVIDIA and KIA. Together with co-investors and financing, the fund is targeting up to US$100 billion in AI infrastructure assets, spanning energy, land, data centres, and compute. Brookfield also announced the creation of Radiant, a new NVIDIA Cloud Partner, to provide full-stack AI services leveraging its owned infrastructure. This isn’t a passive bet on AI. It is Brookfield inserting itself as the builder and operator of AI’s physical backbone.

The acquisition of the remaining 26% of Oaktree Capital, completed in late 2025, is another meaningful catalyst. Oaktree brings one of the world’s premier credit platforms fully under Brookfield’s roof, adding nearly US$200 million to fee earnings and meaningfully expanding its reach into the institutional credit market.

With many arrows in the quiver, so to speak, management has articulated a clear ambition to double the business by 2030. With deployable capital at a record US$188 billion, a freshly closed AI infrastructure fund, full ownership of Oaktree, and an expanding private wealth distribution network in the U.S. and Japan, the building blocks for that doubling are tangibly in place. The structural tailwinds —private credit replacing bank lending, institutional capital flowing into infrastructure, and the multi-trillion-dollar AI build-out requiring massive real asset investment — all play directly to Brookfield’s strengths.

For investors looking for a single holding that captures the AI infrastructure supercycle, the private credit boom, and the global demand for real assets, Brookfield Corp. belongs on the shortlist. 

The post Just Released: 5 Top Motley Fool Stocks to Buy in April 2026 appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada.

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Fool contributor Iain Butler has positions in Brookfield Corporation. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Brookfield Corporation.

Motley Fool Canada Chief Investment Officer Iain Butler calls SmartCentres REIT (TSX: SRU.UN) a “perfect” stock to buy and hold in a TFSA for years to come. Hear him explain why in less than five minutes.

Prefer to read? There’s a transcript below.

Nick Sciple: I’m Motley Fool Canada Senior Analyst Nick Sciple, and this is The Five-Minute Major, here to make you a smarter investor in about five minutes. Today, we’re discussing what could be one of the best TFSA stock options for your monthly passive income. The company is SmartCentres REIT, Walmart’s landlord throughout Canada. My guest today is Motley Fool Canada Chief Investment Officer Iain Butler. Iain, thanks for joining me.

Iain Butler: Always a pleasure to be here.

Nick: If you were looking to add reliable monthly income to your TFSA right now, and lots of people are, why does SmartCentres REIT stand out to you as a strong contender to have on your radar?

SmartCentres REIT is a ‘perfect, perfect, perfect’ idea for TFSA investors

Iain: That’s right, and rightfully so. It’s a tremendous tool that we Canadian investors have, the TFSA, and this is a perfect, perfect, perfect idea to just stick in there and leave it alone for years. So SmartCentres is anchored by necessity-based retail operations, and these operations provide tremendous stability in most, in almost all, economic environments outside a pandemic, which hopefully we don’t see again. Even then, this is a company that’s skated by relatively unscathed. So, strong results have been posted recently. They’ve got an industry-leading 98.6% occupancy rate.

And the dividend yield is currently about 6.7%, and that is a dividend that is paid monthly.

The tenant base, as indicated, is super resilient, anchored by big-name brands that perform well, regardless of the economic backdrop. These are brands that people go to every day, day in and day out.

The big name behind this company is Walmart. SmartCentres was actually born to be Walmart’s landlord, essentially, when Walmart came to Canada so many years ago. Walmart continues to be the anchor tenant for this company, and to SmartCentre’s benefit. They’ve got a very unique relationship there.

Growth potential for SRU.UN and its dividend

Beyond retail, this is a REIT that has been expanding elsewhere. They’ve recently opened three new self-storage facilities, bringing their total up to 14, and they’ve got some residential development going on. They own a big swath of land at the north end of Toronto, the city Vaughan. They’ve got a condo tower, which is already 93% pre-sold. This property is right adjacent to a newly constructed public transit hub. There’s a new subway stop there. This is sort of the next leg in SmartCentre’s evolution, this development of sort of mixed-use property.

Nick: You talked about SmartCentre’s strong history of dividend payments, really great numbers when you look at what you’re looking for from a REIT, great tenants. If you look to the future of those tenants looking to spend more in Canada, Walmart recently announced a $6.5 billion expansion. What does that mean for SmartCentre’s unit holders?

Iain: This is a story anchored by Walmart. Walmart accounts for about 23% of rental revenue for SmartCentre. And Walmart is building dozens of new stores, starting with five supercenters by 2027.

This is just gonna drive major anchor tenant demand and foot traffic to these properties.

The Walmart strategy builds on a previous $3.5 billion modernization investment, and it just shows that Walmart’s gonna keep growing, and they’re gonna bring SmartCentre right along with it. So, this is a great combination of excellent current dividend yield, 6.7%, and a significant opportunity for ongoing growth to those dividends, but just from a company basis as well, which is perfectly suited to sticking in one’s TFSA and just leaving it alone.

Nick: That’s right, so if you’re looking for monthly income, this may not be the biggest performer in your portfolio in terms of percentage return, but reliable income checks each month, with really a growth story that’s still intact.

Iain, thanks so much for joining us for this edition of The Five-Minute Major. Reminder to our viewers, if you want more stock ideas from us, click on the icon in the upper right of your screen. Thanks for joining us for this episode of The Five-Minute Major. Hope to see you next time.

The post The Top TFSA Stock for Monthly Income in 2026 appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada.

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Fool contributor Iain Butler has positions in SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trust. Fool contributor Nicholas Sciple has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trust. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Greetings, Fools! The Stock Advisor Canada team is kicking off 2026 with our newest collection of top stocks to buy this month. These are the five stocks we think are the best opportunity for new money, right now.

A fun mix of opportunities awaits, and we’re as excited as ever to ride through the calendar year ahead by your side.

Foolishly yours,
Iain Butler
Advisor, Stock Advisor Canada

Coveo Solutions (TSX: CVO) is one of the very few Canadian companies that’s actually in the AI game. It’s renowned for its AI-powered search and relevance platform, which lets organizations to deliver personalized, relevant experiences for their customers and employees at scale.

OK, cool. But what does that actually mean?

If you’ll indulge me a moment … in my opinion, Seinfeld is the greatest show that ever was and maybe ever will be.

A scene from Seinfeld comes to mind as we try to digest the words above.

In the scene, Kramer is explaining to Jerry how he got a deal on a stereo system that was damaged, and he suggests that Jerry could “write it off.” Here’s the relevant portion of the dialogue between the two:

• Jerry: “Write it off? Do you even know what a write-off is?”
• Kramer: “No … but they do. And they’re the ones writing it off.”

For our purposes:

• You: â€œAI-Relevance Platform? Iain, do you even know what an AI-Relevance Platform is?”
• Me: â€œBarely … but they do. And they’re the ones that are using the AI-Relevance Platform.”

“They” in this case is the extensive list of customer relationships that Coveo has built — a collection that reads as a who’s who when it comes to the technology world and beyond.

And the company just gained a huge new customer.

Prior to the holiday break, the company announced a new partnership with the Government of Canada that will incorporate its AI-centric offering. Financial terms were not revealed, but heck, when’s the last time the Canadian government didn’t overspend?!?

Investors who do their research before buying Coveo will notice that the stock got kneecapped back in October after the company released quarterly results. By my calculations, that was a result of an entirely insignificant loss of business. Because of it, the market seemingly (and ignorantly) concluded that Coveo was broken. And if nothing else, the recently announced deal with the Government of Canada indicates that this just isn’t the case.

Though Coveo is at the higher end of the risk/reward spectrum largely because the road ahead for all things AI is entirely opaque, we remain of the opinion that it’s a risk/reward situation worth pursuing in 2026. 

The post Just Released: 5 Top Motley Fool Stocks to Buy in January 2026 appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada.

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Fool contributor Iain Butler has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Intact Financial. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Think you can’t make money investing in stocks everyone’s heard of? Think again. Here are three (admittedly boring) Canadian blue chips everyone should consider owning in 2026.

Prefer to read? There’s a transcript below.

Canadian Stocks to Own in 2026

Nick Sciple: I’m Motley Fool Canada Senior Analyst Nick Sciple, and this is The 5-Minute Major, here to make you a smarter investor in about five minutes. Today, we’re discussing “The Unsexy Portfolio for 2026.” My guest today is Motley Fool Canada Chief Investment Officer Iain Butler. Iain, thanks for joining me.

Iain Butler: Great to be here, as always, Nick.

Nick: Everyone has been chasing the next big AI stock in 2025, but today we’re looking in the opposite direction. What is this “unsexy portfolio” strategy, and what are some of the names you’re looking at for 2026?

Iain: There’s a line that flies around the investing industry that “you don’t get points for difficulty,” and I think that’s what we’re kind of offering here. So while the market chases hype (I mean, we love hype as much as anybody), but for our purposes here, we’re thinking about companies that are dominant in their industry.

They pay us “rent” through dividend payments to own them. So our goal is to create a stress-free collection.

It’s gonna provide a market-topping dividend yield that will go a long way to help alleviate any economic stability that we come upon in the year and years ahead.

So, two companies that we’ve followed for years nicely meet this criteria. The first one we’ll classify this one as a cash cow.

2 Stable Dividend Stocks for Canadian Investors to Buy Now

It’s Canadian Natural Resources (TSX: CNQ). This is not just one of North America’s largest oil producers.

It’s essentially a factory that prints money as long as the price of oil remains above $40 a barrel. CNQ is a dividend aristocrat: 25 years of consecutive increases, currently yields more than 5%.

Second stock: CN Rail (TSX: CNR). And if we’re gonna call CNQ a cash cow, let’s call CN Rail the backbone. That’s exactly the role that railroads in general play in the North American economy. CN Rail’s stock has been under pressure during 2025.

It currently trades at a multiple about as cheap as it gets, historically, and that just means that not only are we set to benefit from the ongoing sort of mid-single-digit growth that this company books year in and year out, but multiple expansion is likely going to play a role in our long-term returns as well.

In addition, CN’s 2.6% current dividend yield is money in the bank, and while the yield doesn’t necessarily jump off the page, like CNQ, CN Rail has religiously increased that dividend on an annual basis, meaning, in the years ahead, our effective yield is very likely to grow from that point.

Nick: Two strong, defensive, stalwart companies in Canada. But for an investor who, you know, likes things to get a little bit spicy — wants to juice their passive income opportunity — are there any picks that offer higher yields, perhaps with a bit more risk, that are on your radar as we enter 2026?

1 Riskier Dividend Stock to Consider for High Yield

Iain: Sure, and I mean, just like hype, who doesn’t like a bit of spice? Our controversial pick, let’s call it, has a massive 9.5% current yield, and the market has really punished this company as questions have arisen around the sustainability of its current dividend.

We’re talking about Telus (TSX: T), the big Canadian telecom company.

Telus has addressed the market’s concerns head-on, in my opinion, by pausing its planned dividend growth.

And we’re comfortable that the company’s forecasted free cash flows will indeed be enough to cover the dividend that exists. We’re of the mind that the current stock price bakes in a worst-case scenario, and we just don’t foresee that playing out. On its own, the current dividend yield of more than 9% could well be enough

to provide a market-beating return in the years ahead. So that’s, that’s three

pretty well-known companies. A lot of people don’t think you can make money with well-known companies. We disagree strongly with that. So we combine the three, we’ve got Telus, CNQ, and CNR with a blended yield of roughly 5.9%. It’s a tax-efficient and a diversified collection.

Nick: Yeah, may not be the sexiest group of stocks, kind of fits the description of the list, but certainly companies that will let you sleep at night and provide passive income as you move into 2026, where there are some concerns around economic weakness that could weigh on some of the high flyers we saw this past year.

Iain, thanks so much for joining us for this edition of The Five-Minute Major. A reminder to our viewers, if you want more stock ideas from us, click the icon in the upper right-hand corner.

Thanks for joining us, and we’ll see you next time. Fool on.

The post The Least Sexy Stocks for 2026 (Don’t Even Think About Buying These Unless You Want to Make Money) appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada.

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Fool contributor Iain Butler has positions in Canadian Natural Resources and TELUS. Fool contributor Nicholas Sciple has positions in Canadian Natural Resources and has the following options: short January 2026 $27.50 puts on Canadian Natural Resources. The Motley Fool recommends Canadian National Railway, Canadian Natural Resources, and TELUS. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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The season for a lot of things is upon us, with many investors taking a look ahead to the coming year. But if experience has taught me anything, it’s that making short-term predictions is a waste of everyone’s time. After all, nobody knows the specifics of what the future holds.

But everyone should know that they will rhyme with the generalities of the past.

This means 2025 has set Canadian investors up very nicely for the road ahead. The reason being (while gold in Canada and the sphere of influence surrounding “AI” in the U.S. have carried the narrative) somewhat behind the scenes, a whole bunch of high-quality companies have become nicely cheaper than they were to start the year. Though relatively buried on Page 12, so to speak, multiple contraction has been another prevalent theme over the past 12 months.

History suggests buying a company for 20 times earnings is better than buying it for 40 times earnings, for instance.

And it’s our opinion that we’re going to thank 2025 for these opportunities at some point down the road.

For now, we have the opportunity to share some of our very favourite companies that are trading at very favourable prices.

Enjoy!

Foolishly yours,
Iain Butler
Advisor, Stock Advisor Canada

FirstService (TSX: FSV) is a prime example of the “multiple contraction” dynamic I explained above.

FirstService is in the upper echelon of our favourite companies when it comes to business quality, but we haven’t talked about it much because it’s always felt richly valued.

We really started watching FirstService back in 2017. Since then, the company has traded for more than 30 times forward earnings. Sometimes for much more. Today, the business can be had for about 25 times. This is more of a relatively cheap situation than an absolute one, but simply put, this business very rarely goes on sale.

Oh, and just what is this business?

FirstService is a North American leader in essential outsourced property services, operating through two main divisions:

1. FirstService Residential: North America’s largest manager of residential communities (condominiums, co-operatives, homeowner associations, etc.), managing over 9,000 communities representing more than 4.5 million residents across 25 U.S. states and three Canadian provinces.
2. FirstService Brands: One of North America’s largest providers of essential property services delivered through both company-owned operations and franchise systems, including brands such as First Onsite Restoration (commercial property restoration), Paul Davis Restoration, Roofing Corp of America, Century Fire Protection, California Closets, CertaPro Painters, Floor Coverings International, and Pillar to Post Home Inspectors.

The commonality between these two business lines is that they are both focused on recurring revenue streams from essential property services that are required regardless of economic conditions.

To be sure, you’re unlikely to win anyone over if you mention FirstService at a holiday gathering in the weeks ahead. But with a valuation window open, you’ll almost assuredly get the last laugh a decade from now as this business grows reliably and cranks out profitable year after profitable year.

The post Just Released: 5 Top Motley Fool Stocks to Buy in December appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada.

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• This Growth Stock Continues to Crush the Market

Fool contributor Iain Butler has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Intact Financial. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Telus announced a major change in its dividend strategy: It is stopping regular increases in its dividend while maintaining the current rate. What does the news mean for Telus investors? Motley Fool Canada breaks it down in this short video.

Prefer to read? There’s a transcript below.

Nick Sciple: I’m Motley Fool Canada Senior Analyst Nick Sciple, and this is The Five-Minute Major, here to make you a smarter investor in about five minutes. Today, we’re discussing Canadian telecom giant Telus’s recent strategy update, including management’s decision to pause their dividend growth strategy.

My guest today is Motley Fool Canada Chief Investment Officer Iain Butler. Iain, thanks for joining me.

Iain Butler: Great to be here, Nick.

What’s going on with Telus’s dividend?

Nick: So as I teed off with in the intro, Telus dropped big news this week around its plans for its dividend and future growth outlook for its business. What does all this news mean for shareholders?

Iain: Yes, indeed. So, eyebrows have sort of been raised over Telus’s dividend, as illustrated by the more than 9% yield at which the stock has been trading in recent weeks. And this week, the company attempted to calm the market down with some announced alterations.

So, the dividend remains as is, which is great news. However, the company’s pledge to continually increase that dividend is now off the table. They’ve just deemed it sort of ridiculous to need to continue upping the dividend when the stock already yields 9%. In addition, the Dividend Reinvestment Plan, or DRIP, short term, is going to change as well. For those that don’t know, a DRIP is when shareholders elect to receive shares at a discount to the market price in lieu of a cash dividend payment.

But with shares of Telus trading as they are, this discount is going to be stepped down to nothing over the next 6 to 12 months.

Telus’s free cash flow targets

Management also released free cash flow targets (helping to calm the market down) for the next three years to provide further confidence that the company is indeed able to support the current dividend. Free cash flow is expected to grow at a 10% annualized rate between 2026 and 2028, with $2.4 billion, or $1.56 per share, in free cash flow and an annual dividend commitment of $1.67 in 2026. The payout ratio will drop below 100% by 2027,and should continue to decline from there. And I think for 2026, when there’s a bit of a shortfall, the company has the financial flexibility to cover that temporary gap.

Those are the details.

Nick: The big headline news there being Telus, a company that had increased its dividend payout on a semi-annual basis, going back for over a decade now, back to the early 2010s. Now, those dividend increases are going away. Maybe some increases to come in the future, but certainly not going to be on a regularly scheduled program that investors have gotten used to. So with this change in the dividend policy, do you view this as a red flag for the business, or if you’re a long-term shareholder, could there be a silver lining here?

What the dividend changes mean for Telus investors

Iain: I think what we’ve actually been left with is somewhat of a conundrum, and this is causing my brain to hurt, frankly. Historically, Canada’s big three telco companies, that’s Telus, Rogers, and BCE, have traded pretty closely together in terms of valuation. Today, though, Telus’s dividend yield of about 9% looks absolutely enormous relative to the 3.8% yield offered by Rogers and BCE’s 5.4% yield.

And if indeed Telus’s dividend is sustainable, which management is telling us that it is, that 9% yield should look a lot more like the yields offered by BCE and Rogers. For that to happen, though, the stock would have to appreciate to more than $32 per share from the current $18.73 as we record this, for Telus to offer that 5%ish yield with the current dividend payment.

That’s well and good, and what a great stock move that would be. Problem is, if Telus were to be priced at $32, its enterprise value to EBITDA ratio would be about 16.4 times, and that is up from the current 11.4 times. 11.4 times is already a 40% premium to what BCE and Rogers trade at.

And 16.4 times would represent more like a 100% premium. Historically, over the past 10 years, Telus has traded for an average premium of about 18%.

So something’s gotta give here. Telus should not offer the yield that it does, over its telecom peers.

However, if it were to trade in line on the yield front, the stock is going to look ridiculously overvalued, again, relative to its peers. So, the most obvious solution for me is for that EV to EBITDA multiple to come down. To do so, Telus could reduce its debt. That would bring the enterprise value lower. This will not happen overnight. The debt is sizable, and again, they’re gonna have a gap on free cash flow in 2026 relative to the dividend. So, good chance this yield spread isn’t going to disappear anytime soon, but when that ratio declines below 100, it means there will be cash to pay down the debt. Telus also has a bunch of assets within it that it can sell, and they’ve made mention that they are trying to offload some assets, and the chunk of cash that would come from an asset sale would also help to reduce the debt.

Bottom line, though, I don’t know that you’re going to get a lot in terms of company growth out of Telus over the next three years.

Maybe that means not much in terms of share price appreciation, but for yield-hungry investors, to me, I think this week’s announcement makes it a really attractive situation. I mean, a 9% pretty near guaranteed dividend payout is what income investors sort of dream of. So I think dividend investors should be very interested in this week’s development out of Telus.

Nick: Yeah, there were some questions around sustainability of that dividend. Now, shareholders can, if they believe what management has told them, believe that that dividend should remain in place. 9% dividend yield, certainly attractive in this environment where the risk-free rate is in that low 4% range.

That’s all the time we’ve got for this edition of The Five-Minute Major. A reminder, if you want more stock ideas from us, please click on the info icon in the upper right-hand corner. Hope to see you next time. Until then, thanks for joining us, and Fool on!

The post 9% Yield: Is Telus’s Dividend Safe? appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada.

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Fool contributor Iain Butler has positions in TELUS. Fool contributor Nicholas Sciple has positions in Rogers Communications. The Motley Fool recommends Rogers Communications and TELUS. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Motley Fool analysts share why they’re excited about buying this stock — right now.

The post This Dividend Stock Rarely Goes on Sale. But It Is Now. appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada.

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Premium content from Motley Fool Stock Advisor Canada

Amazingly, we’re coming into the home stretch for calendar year 2025. Time flies, and all that stuff.

The stock market in 2025 has been a story of haves and have-nots — a dynamic that surprisingly exists in both the Canadian and U.S. markets.

Gold has driven the Canadian market, while the “Mag 7” is responsible for the bulk of U.S. market gains.

Looking under the hood, the S&P/TSX Composite was up 22.4% year to date as of November 3.

But 121 companies (out of 211), or 57% of index constituents, have underperformed the market. Almost one in four had booked a negative return since the calendar turned.

The situation is more dramatic in the United States. The S&P 500 was up 16.5% year to date on November 3. Strikingly, 360 companies — that’s 72% of the index — have underperformed that bogey. And 45% of the companies in the index had booked a negative return for the year so far — almost half of them!

Now, to fully flesh this out, we’d want to look at how these figures compare to the rest of market history, but that goes beyond what I’m trying to get at.

You see, suffice to say, what we’ve been dealing with is what’s known as a lack of market breadth. A few corners of the market where the sun has been shining have done very well. But that sunshine has been relegated to a select few corners. Cloud cover has been locked in elsewhere, to the detriment of stock prices.

Where this leaves us is that even though from a business standpoint many of the companies we love have performed very nicely, multiple contraction has been rampant.

And while this is the kind of scenario that’s annoyingly painful in the moment, it’s actually very well received with a longer-term outlook in mind. After all, buying a company at 40 times earnings, for instance, and buying that same company at 25 times earnings generates two very different outcomes — one better than the other.

We’ve come upon a lot of companies trading at a metaphorical 40 times earnings in recent years. 2025 has kindly turned many of them into 25 times earnings situations.

Now, you’re about to meet a few of our favourite businesses that haven’t appeared this ripe for the picking in quite some time.

Thanks, 2025!

Foolishly yours,
Iain Butler
Advisor, Stock Advisor Canada

Intact Financial (TSX:IFC) is one of Canada’s best stocks, though seldom does it provide us the opportunity to boldly proclaim, “Buy Intact, now!”

The reason being, the stock price has been on a nearly constant upward trajectory since we starting looking at it. Not that there’s really been a bad time to pick up shares of Intact. It’s just that we Fools are wired to pound the table on a company like this during a pullback.

Consider Intact’s record of growing book value per share. Canada’s largest property and casualty insurer has grown this figure at ~10% per year since we started watching it, and given the consistency with which it’s accomplished this rate, we think it serves as a solid guess of what’s to come.

Tack on a dividend yield of 2% at the current payout — which we expect to grow — and you’re looking at a tidy baseline return of 12% or so from this company.

Where the total return situation has given us pause in the past is when Intact’s multiple trades north of 2.5 times book value. As recently as May 2025, this multiple stood as high as 3.25 times, but thanks to the broadly experienced multiple contraction I mentioned above, we’re back to being asked to pay about 2.6 times book value for Intact today.

While multiple expansion from here fits more in the nice-to-have category than something we’d expect, we’re still looking at a very high-quality company that at least shouldn’t have a multiple-related headwind combating the underlying company growth Intact is bound to achieve.

If you’re looking to sleep well, buy some shares of Intact at the current price and tuck them under your pillow. The longer they remain there, the better.

The post Just Released: 5 Top Motley Fool Stocks to Buy in November appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada.

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Fool contributor Iain Butler has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Intact Financial. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

The U.S. government is partnering with Westinghouse Electric to build nuclear reactors, and Westinghouse just happens to be owned by Canadian powerhouses Brookfield Asset Management and Cameco.

Motley Fool senior analyst Nick Sciple breaks it down in this short video. Prefer to read? There’s a transcript below.

Iain Butler: I’m Motley Fool Canada Chief Investment Advisor Iain Butler, and this is “The Five-Minute Major,” here to make you a smarter investor in about five minutes.

Today we’re discussing the massive $80 billion nuclear deal and what it means for Canadian investors.

My guest today is Fool Canada senior analyst Nick Sciple. Nick, thanks for joining me.

Nick Sciple: Great to be here with you, Iain. It’s fun to be in the other chair today.

Iain: We’re gonna drill you here on this big deal.

$80 billion deal to build nuclear reactors in the U.S.

Earlier this week, big news: An $80 billion partnership announced between the U.S. government and two very big Canadian companies, Brookfield Asset Management (TSX: BAM) and Cameco (TSX: CCO). Can you break it down, Nick, what this deal is, and why it’s happening right now?

Nick: This is a first-of-its-kind partnership that is set, as you say, to build at least $80 billion of new nuclear reactors across the United States. In terms of what’s going on, the U.S. government is partnering with Westinghouse Electric, one of the leading companies building nuclear reactors around the world. The U.S. government will help arrange the financing and secure permits to get these plants built as part of the broader agenda to maximize U.S. energy output and achieve energy sovereignty.

Obviously, it’s a huge story for Canadian investors because Westinghouse is co-owned by two big Canadian-based companies, that being Brookfield Asset Management, which owns 51% of Westinghouse, and the uranium mining giant Cameco, which owns the other 49%. So these Canadian firms are at the absolute center of this American nuclear renaissance. They are the equity holders in the company that’s going to be building these new, big reactors. The big driver for this nuclear renaissance, as I’m sure folks have seen, is the insatiable demand for power from artificial intelligence and data centres.

This AI power boom is causing U.S. power demand to grow for the first time in the better part of two decades and is straining the grid. AI needs massive, 24-7 reliable power, and nuclear energy is one of the only carbon-free ways to do that at scale.

Iain: Awesome. Perfect rundown. And I think, just to throw a blanket over everything here, we Canadian investors are sort of missing out on all the semiconductor sort of technical aspects of this AI boom. Where we are fitting in, or I was going to say plugging in, is the energy side of the equation.

So, what are the short-term, long-term implications for Canadian investors of this deal specifically, especially regarding both Cameco and Brookfield?

Nick: The short-term reaction, you saw it on the day of the announcement. Cameco’s shares up over 25% on the day the deal was announced.

That’s not just because of the ownership in Westinghouse, where they are a co-owner of the reactor builder, but they also offer secure Western-based fuel supplies for the uranium that you’re going to need to run these plants. And then if you look longer term, this deal is structured to be very lucrative for the U.S. government, for Cameco, and for Westinghouse. The U.S. government gets a 20% share of future profits from Westinghouse, but that’s only after Westinghouse has paid out at least $17.5 billion in profits to Cameco and Brookfield. There’s also a clause where the U.S. government can require an IPO of Westinghouse by 2029 if the value of that subsidiary surpasses $30 billion.

The U.S. federal government would like to lock in those gains. I think Cameco and Brookfield will as well. So this puts Westinghouse on a real clear path to IPO. That said, there are some risks. Investors need to remember that building nuclear reactors is notoriously difficult and expensive. The last two Westinghouse reactors built in the U.S. were about 7 years behind schedule and ran at more than double their original $14 billion estimate. In fact, those cost overruns are what drove Westinghouse into bankruptcy back in 2017. It’s why this is a company that’s owned by Brookfield Asset Management.

today. Also, another point on kind of where we are in the nuclear cycle … that plant that was abandoned back in 2017 for cost overruns?

Just this past month, announcements that Brookfield is going to partner with the government in South Carolina to try to get that facility back underway and under construction. So we’re in an environment where all hands on deck for AI power demand, that’s leading to potential for new construction, and also picking up all the scraps that are out there for potential energy production in the near term. So while the U.S. government is promising to fast-track these permits, and that can help put this new construction on better footing, there is still execution risk on these projects, and that is massive. So, like all things when it comes to investing, this situation is not without risk, but this deal continues this emerging theme that power demand from AI is only going to go up in the years ahead, and that nuclear energy is going to be a key player in meeting that demand. That should be music to the ears of Canadian investors like Brookfield and Cameco. And also, if we look out broader in the Canadian market, I think there’s going to be more opportunities for uranium producers and talented nuclear engineers, which Canada has many, to contribute to this boom.

Iain: Just, on the Brookfield angle, this is such a Brookfield story. This is what Brookfield does. They pick up struggling assets, like Westinghouse in 2017, and they see the value in it, bring it up to snuff, and, they’re gonna benefit for years and years ahead. Okay, just over 5 minutes. Thanks for joining us. If you want more stock ideas from us, please click the info icon in the upper right corner.

The post Why an $80 Billion Nuclear Deal to Power AI in the U.S. Means Profits for Canadian Investors appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada.

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Fool contributors Iain Butler and Nick Sciple have no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Brookfield Asset Management and Cameco. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (TSX: BIP.UN) currently yields 4.9%, but that’s not the only reason Motley Fool Canada’s Iain Butler thinks it could be a smart stock to buy now. Watch the video to learn more. Prefer to read? There’s a transcript below.

Nick Sciple: I’m Motley Fool Canada Senior Analyst Nick Sciple, and this is “The Five-Minute Major,” here to make you a smarter investor in about five minutes. Interested in more stock ideas from us, or even formal recommendations? Click the icon in the upper right corner for more.

Today on “The Five-Minute Major,” we’ll be discussing Brookfield Infrastructure and why it’s one of the top stocks on our radar this month in October 2025. My guest today to help me do that is Motley Fool Canada Chief Investment Officer Iain Butler. Iain, thanks for joining me.

Iain Butler: Great to be here, as always, Nick.

Nick: For the uninitiated, Iain, what is Brookfield Infrastructure? What does the company do?

What does BIP do?

Iain: Brookfield Infrastructure is but one — I like to use the term — “tentacle” in the Brookfield empire. At its core, Brookfield Infrastructure is one of the largest owners and operators of critical global infrastructure networks that exists. It owns essential backbone assets to the global economy, and I’m talking about long-life, high-quality assets that provide essential services, like utilities, transport, toll roads, data infrastructure. We’re talking pipelines, transport natural gas, and the data centres that are in the news every day these days. So, Brookfield Infrastructure is a very critical component of the global economy. It’s a business that’s diversified across four segments. It owns utilities. Regulated businesses are included in this segment, like electricity transmission, natural gas distribution, all of which generate very stable and predictable cash flows.

There’s also the components of transportation, midstream energy — which is pipelines — and again, data infrastructure. We’re talking rail lines, ports, natural gas pipelines, and again, the growing portfolio of data infrastructure, which includes cell towers as well, which is always an interesting asset.

All of this is bundled up into a package, but overarching this package of assets — a highly unique collection of assets, I’ll add — is the Brookfield strategy, and Brookfield’s strategy throughout the empire is to acquire assets on a value basis, and actively manage them. Brookfield is actually an operator of these assets, which tends to set them apart in a world where there’s financial owners of these things, but not necessarily operators. Brookfield combines them both, and they tend to buy these assets on the relative cheap. They do have some turnover in their portfolio, so they’ll pick something up, they’ll fix it up, operate it for a spell, and then sell it for a premium price. So, you get the steady income component that the assets provide, and you get a sort of a more active management strategy later on top of that.

Which is attractive.

Nick: Yeah, you think about these infrastructure assets, really important at all times to providing the backbone to our economy and what we need to maintain growth. When we talk about right now, here as we sit in October 2025, why should folks be excited about this business and the stock behind it?

Is Brookfield Infrastructure a good stock to buy?

Iain: One of the coolest things about Brookfield Infrastructure is that it’s publicly available to investors like you, me, and everyone watching this video. Historically, these are the kinds of assets that are owned by the likes of governments, sovereign wealth funds and other institutional investors, like pension funds or life insurance companies, companies with long life liabilities. You and I historically have not had access to own a toll road or a port or a private rail line, but Brookfield and others have really changed this game and cracked this niche open for our portfolios, and our portfolios are better off for it. But speaking to Brookfield Infrastructure specifically, the business is exceptionally well-positioned to benefit from three of the biggest global trends today. These are digitalization, decarbonization, and deglobalization. Massive capital investment is needed for data centres, renewable energy transmission, and the onshoring of critical supply chains, and Brookfield is a direct beneficiary of this spending.

Another point here is that in the current economic environment, Brookfield Infrastructure offers inflation-protected cash flows. It’s locked in with long-life contracts, and these contracts tend to move with inflation, so you don’t get an erosion of your value the longer you hold it.

Finally, it pays an attractive dividend, a dividend that offers a 4.9% yield, and management has stated a goal of delivering 5% to 9% annual growth, and this is something that they have stuck to over as long as I’ve followed this company. So, this is a reliable dividend grower to go along with the current attractive yield. Again, we’ll go back to that overarching value strategy that Brookfield offers, where you’re getting some portfolio turnover that’s going to add value along the way.

Nick: Yes, you got critical infrastructure, well-managed by a great management team, in a market environment where demand for those sorts of things is going up.

Also in a macroeconomic environment where inflation-protected cash flow is probably more attractive today than at least five and 10 years in the past. Iain, thanks so much for joining us for this edition of “The Five-Minute Major.” Hope to see everybody next time.

Iain Butler: Fool on.

The post BIP Is a Top Dividend Stock to Buy Today appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada.

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Fool contributor Iain Butler has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Brookfield Infrastructure Partners. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.