How this $5.5-billion dividend fund manager is navigating volatile markets

Markets are off to a choppy start this year and money manager Daneshvar Rohinton expects more volatility in the months ahead.

“Some of the returns from the past two years have been clawed back as investors are grappling with escalating trade disputes and mixed results on the AI darlings of the past few years,” says Mr. Rohinton, vice-president and portfolio manager at iA Global Asset Management Inc. in Toronto.

Tariff threats are an obvious concern for investors, but Mr. Rohinton is also expecting an economic realignment as many countries – not just Canada – look at becoming more self-sufficient.

“Investors need to keep the potential for tariffs and their strategic implications in mind when looking [for] and evaluating investment opportunities,” says Mr. Rohinton, who co-manages more than $5.5-billion in assets across five funds, including three dividend funds.

His dividend-investing strategies include stocks, primarily in the U.S., the U.K. and Europe across sectors such as industrials, consumer discretionary and financials.

“We’re not looking for the highest-yielding companies,” Mr. Rohinton says. “We buy companies that are robust and have a bright future ahead of them where we believe their dividend growth is going to continue for many years.”

His IA Clarington Canadian Dividend Fund, Series F, has returned 21.4 per cent over the past year. Its three-year annualized return is 8.6 per cent and its five-year annualized return is 11.2 per cent.

His IA Clarington Global Dividend Fund, Series F, launched in February, 2023, has returned 21.5 per cent over the past year and 18.2 per cent since inception.

The performance for both funds is based on total returns, net of fees, as of Feb. 28.

The Globe spoke with Mr. Rohinton about three stocks he likes and one he recently sold:

Name three stocks you own today and why.

Linde PLC LIN-Q, the industrial gas and engineering company, is a stock we’ve owned for more than a decade. We’ve been buying more of it consistently over the past six months, including more aggressively around the US$420 to US$430 a share range.

There’s a big need for the kind of pure industrial gases the company produces for use in steel mills, semiconductor factories and hospitals. We think it’s a great way to participate in the European and the U.S. industrial renaissance through an oligopoly business in which there are only two other major competitors in the world. Linde also has a strong management team focused on cost savings, maintaining margins and capital discipline.

Microsoft Corp. MSFT-Q is a stock we’ve owned for about a decade and have been consistently buying more of, including earlier this month.

We think Microsoft is one of the most misunderstood companies in the world. Investors talk about it as a tech company, an AI company, or a cloud computing company. That misses the bigger picture of what Microsoft’s core competitive advantage truly is, which is the most successful distributor of technology globally. It wasn’t the first to market with technologies such as Teams, cloud computing and AI, but has been able to grab a competitive advantage.

So, it doesn’t matter what the next technology innovation is – as long as Microsoft isn’t late to the game, it has a chance and a right to win. The stock is currently trading at an attractive valuation, which is why we recently bought more.

Relx Plc RELX-N is a stock we bought last summer on the London Stock Exchange. It provides intellectual property content, including scientific, technical and medical research through journals and books.

The company has been taking advantage of the technological improvements in big data and AI to create more analytical modules that help its academic and law firm clients. As a result, it’s seeing faster revenue growth and margin expansion on top of an already strong foundation.

Name a stock you sold recently.

Elevance Health Inc. ELV-N, a U.S.-based health insurance provider, is a stock we sold over the past three months. As the Trump administration looks to curtail health care spending, in part by drawing a harder line on paying disbursements, we think Elevance has a tough road ahead. We sold the stock to buy UnitedHealth Group Inc. UNH-N, which we think is a better-managed company and more consistent operator with a proven track record.

This interview has been edited and condensed.