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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: These companies were both recently rated as a B, which seems odd. DSG has a long track record of superior earnings growth, consistent growth over many years, predictable earnings, better management, better management credibility, stable executive suite, a deeper executive suite, major barriers to entry, a niche business.... This is not to say that AVO is a bad company, just seems not be of the same quality level as DSG. Does the high DSG valuation supersede all of these other factors? Appreciate your comments.
Read Answer Asked by Joel on October 02, 2017
Q: Have been waiting for CXI shares to do something for a couple of years now. Do you think ECN offers more potential at this point or should I at least wait until CXI reports near the end of the year given that the summer is their busy time and last quarter was very good.

Appreciate your insight.

Paul F.
Read Answer Asked by Paul on September 28, 2017
Q: 3:05 PM 9/27/2017

I have been looking at Extendicare as a source of slow growth and a good dividend, but I have a number of questions about the company that you may be able to answer.

1. What happened in May 2013 when the company cut the monthly dividend from 7 cents to 4 cents? In the same year Revenue dropped from $2,037 million in 2012 to $784 million in 2013 and Operating Income was cut in half.

2. Morningstar shows Equity of $135 million and Debt of $533 million. Can you explain these figures as they relate to Market Cap of $823 million?

3. What is the actual current $ debt, and Debt/Cashflow, and is it unacceptably high?

4. What do you think of management and do you forsee any problems ahead for the company other than inflation and minimum wage increases.

5. Do you have any concerns about the company's ability to continue paying the 4 cent a month 5.2% dividend?

6. INK insider shows that there has been good net insider buying in the last year at EXE with the CEO almost doubling his holding to 240,000 shares with rights to an additionsl 197,000+ shares. In contrast I note that Directors at Sienna have sold nearly 200,000 shares of SIA in the last year. Does this hint at trouble at Sienna and better days ahead for Extendicare?

7. Would you consider EXE's dividend any more or less reliable that those of SIA or CSH.UN? I currently have a 1% position in EXE.

8. Would adding new Money to my 1% position in EXE for the dividend, be a complement to my positions in SIA [4%] and in CSH.UN [3%]?

Thank you very much............ Paul K.

Read Answer Asked by Paul on September 28, 2017
Q: Please discuss dividend distribution schedules, monthly vs quarterly, in the context of DRIPS ("synthetic" DRIPS, by the brokers or trading platforms, which typically deal only in whole shares). A DRIP investor would want a dividend payment & schedule that yields sufficient dividend to buy new shares with the dividend.

SIS, which I recently added to my TFSA, has just changed to monthly dividends -- with not enough dividend to DRIP monthly unless I add more SIS, putting my SIS holdings at an uncomfortably-high allocation. My KBL has been in the same situation, for quite some time now.

What influences management to go to monthly from quarterly distribution?
Read Answer Asked by Lotar on September 28, 2017
Q: I have been reviewing HNL's financials and I find it difficult to determine the company's cash and cash equivalents at the end of Q2. I am concerned about the solvency of the company, its ability to continue the dividend and its prospects given the Alberta political and general sector risks. May I please have your insight.
With appreciation
Read Answer Asked by Ed on September 28, 2017
Q: Please discuss share price issues in terms of the cost per share. Using CSU as a specific example, their price is nudging $700, which effectively means that an investor either has to have a rather large portfolio in order to buy in blocks of 100 shares and stay within reasonable "position" limits, or buy only part blocks, say 5 or 10 shares. Is there any real downside to buying such small partial blocks? What would make management NOT split the shares when certain levels are reached (such as my NA shares did not too long ago)?

Thanks for your continuing education!
Read Answer Asked by Lotar on September 28, 2017
Q: Great Canadian Gaming is now down 10% in the last three days. Could you explain this to me? I get that there was a story about money laundering in BC casinos. But these stories have been around for years and no illegality on the part of GC is even suggested. As I understand it, the fear is VIPs, primarily from oversees, are buying chips with bags of cash, and then, later, cashing out the chips. GC reports these as it is obligated to do but is under no legal obligation to do anything further. If the government decides to change the laws to stop them accepting bundles of cash is that going to cost them a lot of profit somehow? I don't think they're making anything if people buy chips then cash them out again.
Read Answer Asked by John on September 26, 2017
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