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Investment Q&A

Not investment advice or solicitation to buy/sell securities. Do your own due diligence and/or consult an advisor.

Q: In this morning's Globe FN is touted as being a future "dividend aristocrat".

The article went on to state: "It is dominant among mortgage brokers, of which about one-third of Canadians seeking mortgages utilize. The company has close to a 20-per-cent market share there.

First National has shown good capital gains and strong dividend growth. “The company has been a solid, under-the-radar executor of a simple business strategy: become the most trusted and efficient operator in the mortgage broker channel.”
Would you agree with these comments?
Do you consider FN to be a "buy" at this time?
Read Answer Asked by shirley on September 22, 2016
Q: I have rate reset preferred shares (bought at $25 / share) which are presently 25% in value underwater because of the Banks of Canada’s unexpected prime interest rate decrease. At the time of purchase their interest rate was 4 to 4.5% & they will be subject to a rate increase in 2019 & 2020. I your opinion what is the chance of their value returning to near $25 in the next 3 years? I am wondering if I should sell the preferred now or hope that their value will appreciate sometime before their rate reset date . Thanks … Cal
Read Answer Asked by cal on September 21, 2016
Q: I'm exploring the possibility of a half position in GEI. Where does Gibson go from here? Is the company in a position to pick up quality assets during this time of consolidation because of low oil prices? Is there any reason why the dividend will be reduced in the short term?

Many thanks, and keep up the good work,
EOS
Read Answer Asked by Elmer on September 20, 2016
Q: I own shares of this company in my tfsa and looking at replacing it with another stock that has more growth potential.. What are your top three in this category. Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Loretta on September 19, 2016
Q: What do you think of investing in the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrat index, instead of (or in addition to) the S&P 500 index?

According to this web site (http://www.simplysafedividends.com/dividend-aristocrats/) that index has outperformed the S&P 500 index quite nicely over the last 5 year and 10 year period.

So far I have found only one ETF that tracks the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrat Index. It is NOBL (Prdhares S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Index) and has a MER of 0.58%. Do you know of any other ETFs that track this dividend aristocrat index, and if so, which ETF would you recommend?

Paul
Read Answer Asked by Paul on September 19, 2016
Q: Hi. I am interested in putting away 10% of the fixed income in High Yield Bonds. Below is a list of high yield bond offerings.

http://campaigns.questrade.com/Libraries/bonds/Questrade_Bonds_List.sflb.ashx

Page 10 of this link has a list of high yield bonds, of which I've listed a few that seem promising:

1) AIM 4.01% expired 2019

2) XRS 4.86% expired 2021

3) PKI 4.17% expired 2021

4) PKI 4.97% expired 2024

5) QBR.B 5.22% expired 2023

Are they ok or do you have any other suggestions? Please choose two for me. THANK YOU IN ADVANCE
Read Answer Asked by Esther on September 19, 2016
Q: Hi 5i team,

About 18 months ago, I invested 20K in my girlfriend’s newly opened TFSA. I had asked a question where I was looking for stocks (medium to low risk) with dividends above 3% and still have potential for some growth for a 2-5 year hold. These were and still are her only investments.
Following your recommendations I bought equal weights of CDZ, WSP, BNS, AD and WIN. I have since sold WIN for ATD.B

If I were to start over today, what stocks would you suggest? Would you recommend that I adjust the current holdings to match any new suggestions? Or would you just stay the course? Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Marco on September 19, 2016
Q: Long term for increasing dividend which of the above would you hold? They pay a similar dividend and have performed similarly over the past 5 years. The taxes are less for ENF compared to BIP.UN when held in a nonregistered account however like I do. Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Michael on September 16, 2016
Q: Good Morning: I would appreciate your advice in the following situation. I currently hold roughly 15% of my portfolio in a Hi-Yld savings acct. paying 1.5%. The benefit of course is total flexibility in case of a market correction where I see opportunities. The down side is the relatively low return on assets. I have been thinking about transferring some portion of those monies to CBO (or an equivalent if you know of a better option.) However, when I look at the fact sheet for CBO I see the following data: Weighted average yield to maturity is 1.72%; distribution yield is 2.84%, and the trailing 12 month yield is 3.23%. To my relatively novice eyes (esp. in regard to bonds and bond etfs) it doesn't seem that I would be getting that much of a premium, and I would be giving up some flexibility and there is always the risk of a continued decline in the share price (even though it is near its recent lows) thus erasing any gain in yield. There are a lot of issues here that I'm finding it hard to balance out and would appreciate any insight or suggestions you have to offer. Sorry for the length of the question. Don
Read Answer Asked by Donald on September 15, 2016
Q: Hi,

I'm looking for an RRSP investment for my wife. What we have right now is a TD US INDEX fund. Chose this one because it has low MER and tracks the S&P 500. Can you give us other index funds that you can recommend be it US or Canadian with good performance?

Thanks,

Sunday
Read Answer Asked by sunday on September 15, 2016