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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: Hello 5i,
Are you able to break down by sector (to the extent this is possible) the holdings of each Berkshire and Bam? Brk.b is listed as finance and Bam as real estate, but I don’t think this tells the whole story.
Would a 10% position in each of these (20% total) be too much for average risk investor?
Tia!
Read Answer Asked by Kat on February 19, 2021
Q: My question is about how VIRT would do in a sell off or a bout of volatility. I have been reading that they would do well with increased volatility because trading frequency would increase. This would suggest that it might offer some hedging benefits. I am intrigued but skeptical of this thesis because in a serious drawdown my experience is that people just kind of sell everything and VIRT would hardly come up as something to hold on to unlike say gold or even a utility. Can I have your thoughts please? Thank-you.
Read Answer Asked by Alex on February 18, 2021
Q: Good morning. I currently have positions with MFC, SLF and GWO but GWO was a recent purchase just to see how it performed against the other two which I have held for many years. Based on some of my research it appears that Sunlife manages better through pullbacks and downturns historically however if I were also looking at Dividend Yields, currently MFC and GWO are higher. However I try to look at:
1. Growth rate ( ie EPS growth);
2. Dividend Yield Growth and;
3. Forward Valuation
as best as possible when I look at a company. I don't want or believe I need all three and would appreciate your input as to how you would rank them based on the three criteria I've noted.
Thanks,
Kevin
Read Answer Asked by Kevin on February 17, 2021
Q: I hold both these companies.

Mastercard has been pretty flat for the last 12 months. Do you see things picking up significantly for them when people start booking tickets for flights, hotels, concerts and Disney Land or will papal process more of these payments as well. PayPal has grown to a size in my portfolio that I wouldn't want to add to it. I know Mastercard isn't a "weed" but can't decide if it's a "flower" that could use some water ;)

Would you add to Mastercard (or maybe start a position in Visa) today or look for something else? (In the payments space I also have a full position in SQ)

....PayPal passed Mastercard in market cap today. (mind blown emoji)

Cheers
Read Answer Asked by Dennis on February 17, 2021
Q: Can you please comment on these 3 companies and their prospects going forward. On on their recent earnings/conference calls that happened this week. Pros and cons. Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by James on February 16, 2021
Q: I do not understand, and wonder if you can explain, the difference between the new Purpose Investment ETF way to buy bitcoin versus the Wealthsimple way to buy bitcoin?
Read Answer Asked by David on February 16, 2021
Q: Could you please rank these financial stocks? Is there another one you would throw in there that may be better? Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Neil on February 16, 2021
Q: I know that Square, Paypal and MicroStrategy have Bitcoin on their balance sheets. How much of an influence do you think this is having on each companies share price? What is the per share value of the Bitcoin that each company holds? Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Glenn on February 16, 2021
Q: I have an unregistered cdn div payer account, which has about 20% financial sector weighting. This is probably a little high for this account, but overall portfolio diversification including other accounts levels this out much better.

I'm happy to stay with 20% financial in this account, and this is currently achieved via equal weights of BNS, RY and SLF. In pursuit of higher yield, I am considering replacing RY (4%) with FSZ (7%) and looking for your comments on this idea.

Account objective is retirement income for next 10 to 20.

Thanks,

Jim
Read Answer Asked by Jim on February 16, 2021
Q: In the 5i blog of Feb.9 detailing quality stocks the lifecos are listed. It seems to me that IAG stands out as having better past growth & fwd p/e numbers than SLF with way less debt. Has 5i changed its tepid opinion on IAG, particularly considering the stock price is still well off its 2020 peak compared to SLF's though IAG has been on a bit of a tear lately?
Read Answer Asked by Jeff on February 16, 2021