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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: Investors seem very nervous about Wells Fargo. Just today (May 14th) someone on this site expressed some trepidation. What’s your opinion about buying Wells Fargo bonds at this time? One is for a three year hold, the other for six years. If Wells merged with another bank, how would that affect those bonds? Some are speculating that Wells could be another Lehman waiting to happen. Does that have any merit? Are their bonds safe? Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Brian on May 15, 2020
Q: Can you please explain the losses in the big five Canadian Banks shares. I can’t for the following reasons so would appreciate your thoughts before I start to increase my exposure.

Their mtge portfolios are mostly insured , ultimately by the govt. the balance of their mtge loans are normally at significant discounts to the property values.

The new loans being made by the government will likely be backed by the government , not the banks.

They all have a long history of not cutting dividends, BMO has not in 190 years and BNS in 188 years and I expect the other three banks to be in the same approximate time frame of no dividend cuts . Unlikely you will find a US back or an Insurance company that can say the same.

They also over reserve their loan loss provisions in order to keep their profits from the wild fluctuations we see in the US.

Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Robert on May 14, 2020
Q: No questions yet about this rather obscure security, so here goes. Some analysts are predicting that the very high dividend on CWX common shares will be cut drastically or even eliminated. These notes when issued paid 6.375% but at the current price of about $73 the effective interest rate is about 8.5%. Also, when redeemed at (I assume $100) in Oct. 2023, there would be a gain on the current purchase price of $73 for a blended return of about 16%. A high risk security, but would it rank higher than the common share dividend? What are the risks, aside from Canwel going bankrupt, of buying CWX.NT?
Read Answer Asked by David on May 14, 2020
Q: I am following this company. its competitors are Visa , MasterCard and American Express. In last 4-5 years its ROE is around plus-minus 25 on average, increased dividend constantly, buys its share every year. Is these are good sign to invest in it as its price has fallen almost 40 to 45% from its peak. Could it be a good value play compared to V-N, MA-N, AXP-N? Your thoughts about this company.
Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Piyush on May 13, 2020
Q: Why do you prefer insurance companies over banks? Thanks Ron
Read Answer Asked by Ronald on May 13, 2020
Q: I am wondering how you would categorize these companies (V, SQ,PYPL) in relation to one another and if you had to pick 2 to invest in for growth over 10 plus years which ones would you pick? I liked the digital payments theme prior to COVID-19 and think it will clearly accelerate the move to less cash and more digital payments (in-store or online) more e-commerce.
VISA is the largest payment processor in the world (according to your information under stocks profile page) so they process the most payments right now online and in-store.
SQUARE is obviously not as big as Visa but they would be similar in being in both markets (online and in-store payments processing), but Square would be more of an all in one solution for e-commerce, payment processing for Small and Medium sized busineses plus CASH APP and investing etc.
PAYPAL would seem to be similar to Visa in that it is mainly a payment processor (with Honey acquisition maybe adjusting this course somewhat?) but would be essentially be ONLINE payment processing only, so maybe more of a pure play online payment stock? and any main reason why Visa has such great margins compared to Paypal? on its earning call Paypal said "On May 1st, we had our largest single day of transactions in our history, larger than last year's transactions on Black Friday or Cyber Monday." which was extremely bullish to me...
Read Answer Asked by Michael on May 13, 2020
Q: EZPW will announce second quarter fiscal 2020 results after market close today. I not expecting much. However, EZPW is covering a market segment that has significant potential with employment rates being decimated. Are you aware of other, higher quality alternatives in the Pawn Loan space? Thanks for your insight.
Read Answer Asked by David on May 13, 2020
Q: Good morning, quick question. If I sell a bank share (say CIBC) at a loss and immediately buy a different bank share (say RBC) does the loss stand for CRA purposes? Do I have to buy outside the financial category if I want to ensure my capital loss from CI stands? Is this clear with CRA or am I best to wait thirty days before buying another financial? Thanks
Read Answer Asked by alex on May 12, 2020
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