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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: Have FSZ in rrsp so no tax loss. Close to retirement and portfolio is not doing that badly considering the meltdown thanks to your guidance. FSZ is the only stock that is down considerably. Average cost is 11.4. I like the dividends but are they likely to be cut? Not sure what to do with this one. Trim, add, or ?
Read Answer Asked by Craig on April 07, 2020
Q: Do you like POW long term? Is the reported payout ratio of 60% accurate? It doesn t seem to show a lot of growth, should it be a concern? Do you see the Europe exposure as positive? Or would you just buy GWO? Generally speaking, are the lifeco / financial services companies less risky than the banks? I already have a full position in SLF. I am looking for another core holding (financial) for my rrsp acount. Thank you for your help!

Read Answer Asked by Pierre on April 07, 2020
Q: How would you rank the banks? Strongest to weakest in this environment.
I'm considering selling some far "out of the money" puts to get some income. And if I get assigned, so be it. I'll suffer with a few bank positions yielding close to 8%. Geez, we're talking about bank stocks! I figure if they get into trouble we're ALL in really really BIG trouble.
For example, TD at $40 would yield me 7.9% in dividends. That's like 10.2% in interest. Or RBC at $58 would yield me 7.4% in dividends.
So which Canadian banks would "crack" under pressure and which wouldn't.
Thanks and take care!
Read Answer Asked by Carlo on April 07, 2020
Q: Power Financial has merged with Power Corporation. The dividend is over 8% and just recently raised before this covid virus. But when they were two companies, combined the dividend would be much higher for two companies so do you think they would still cut the dividend?
I know they haven't created much value over the years but now being a merged company, do you see more upside? I know you prefer Sunlife. I just think Power Corporation has more divisions they could spin off once this downturn is over. Do you agree?
Read Answer Asked by Helen on April 07, 2020
Q: Any strong objections to doubling down on CHW. I have owned it for many years. It is a riskier play then buying TD but the upside on the rebound is likely bigger at current valuations. They will get hit hard by covid but my feeling is that is built into the current price. I doubt the current 20% div yield is sustainable but they should be in a position to payout something monthly for some income while folks wait for the rebound. With the +50% drop I would double down to get me to my old weighting.
Read Answer Asked by Tom on April 06, 2020
Q: Hi Peter,

Atrium announced yesterday that it will redeem its convertible bonds a month early (from end of June to beginning of May 2020). What is the purpose of this? Also, is it common for companies to have double digit dividend yields and not have any cuts? I understand that mortgage investment corps are more unique as they have to pay out all of their income which explains the high payout ratio (it's expected).
Read Answer Asked by Tait on April 03, 2020
Q: I understand that a covered call ETF will produce lower highs and higher lows compared to a non-covered call ETF. However, what would cause the ETF's to have an inverse relation on a trading day? For example, if we take ZEB and ZWB, I noticed on some trading days in the past (even before the current volatility), one ETF would be up a few % points, while the other ETF would be down a few % points.
Read Answer Asked by Craig on April 01, 2020
Q: UK Banks have suspended their dividends for remainder of 2020...do you see that as something that has a decent chance of happening here in North America? Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Doug on April 01, 2020
Q: Good morning,
Given that CEW includes Banks and Lifecos' and assuming that low interest rates will be with us for some time, I would appreciate your thoughts about selling CEW for tax loss harvesting purposes and purchasing either an exclusively bank ETF such as ZEB or purchasing two banks with the proceeds of the CEW sale. Also, could you also recommend two banks that you would recommend purchasing at some point with the proceeds of the CEW sale. Thank you.
Francesco
Read Answer Asked by Francesco on March 31, 2020