OMERS cuts holdings in Canadian, U.S. stocks

OMERS reduced its ownership in a number of publicly traded companies at the end of the second quarter, according to a 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The pension fund held shares of 153 public companies or exchange-traded funds (ETFs) at the end of June, compared with 192 three months earlier.

OMERS sold entire positions in a number of well-known companies such as Bank of Montreal, Bank of Nova Scotia, Barrick, BlackBerry (formerly Research In Motion), Canadian Pacific, CIBC, Cisco, Citigroup, Enbridge, Gap, Kinross, Manulife, Microsoft, Molson Coors, Philip Morris, PotashCorp, Royal Bank of Canada, State Street, Sun Life, TD Bank and TransCanada.

The fund also initiated positions in firms such as CBRE Group, Lazard, McDonald’s and Phillips 66.

In the three-month period, OMERS reduced its stake in Cameco by 81% to 82,000 shares, slashed its holding in Goodyear by 95% to 112,900 shares, cut its stake in Merck by 74% to 307,900 shares and sold 60% of its interest in Talisman to hold 4,617,700 shares.

At the same time, the fund increased its holdings in Bank of America (up 37.5% to 1,600,400 shares), Echostar (up 1,238% to 127,100 shares) and General Motors (up 273% to 972,500 shares). It also purchased more shares of two ETFs, the iShares MSCI EAFE ETF (up 14.9% to 180,925 shares) and the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (up 18.1% to 137,185 shares).

Institutional investors with more than US$100 million in securities, such as OMERS, must file a 13F form with the SEC within 45 days of the end of a calendar quarter.

Related articles: