Investment Q&A

Q: “Management teams prioritized liquidity and balance sheet strength,” Goldman said in a report to clients published earlier this week. “Heightened uncertainty prompted companies to reduce capital expenditures, buybacks, and dividends.”

Given this statement what do you consider the main focus areas for analyzing a company? PE? Book value? Free cash flow? Payout ratio? Debt/Equity? Revenue changes?

Thanks.

Q: No Bid
5i made reference in March to companies like FSZ going no bid. Can you please explain further what this means. I am assuming no investors were bidding on the stock and short sellers would bid\ask the price down on smaller companies like FSZ. Thx

Q: I am trying to understand the value of diversification in our investments, particularly, for a buy-and-hold investor. I have the impression (correct me if I am wrong) that 5i regards ownership of one or more equities in each of the eleven TSX sectors as diversification (along with a portion of fixed income). To that end, I have been seeking (unsuccessfully) data that shows the progress of each of these sectors over time. I would like to know, for example, whether in the long term, one successful sector can compensate for another failing sector? As a rough proxy, in the absence of such data, I have examined the i-Shares sector etfs over the past twenty years and come to the conclusion that owning all sectors at all times may not be the best strategy. Over that period of time, one might have been better off to use only three sectors, namely, consumer staples, healthcare and information technology than to invest in all of the sectors. I would appreciate your view of what diversification means and what data you use to support that view. Thank you.

Q: Good morning, Peter/Ryan!
I am interested in finding more detailed info about European and emerging market dividend paying stocks, essentially of the "blue chip" variety. Do you know of any specific resources that provides coverage in that area? As well, would you by chance have any recommendations of specific stocks and/or ETFs along those lines … maybe 4 or 5?
Thanks a lot!
Paul

Q: For an individual bond that I hold to maturity, I would consider the yield to maturity as being more relevant than the current yield. But when it comes to a bond etf what is the relevant metric? Possibly the average current yield? As presumably the underlying bonds are not held to maturity as they would be bought and sold to keep the etf's duration in line with its target.

Q: In your recent presentation, you screened for "shareholder yield". I have been unable to find this data in the usual places (Yahoo, Google, my RBC and BMO sites, TMX). Can you tell me if you know any free sites that would provide this for Canadian stocks?

Q: Hi there,

I have been a member of 5i for a few years now and love the service you provide. I know you don't provide US coverage at the moment, but are there any services similar to 5i with US coverage that you know of that you would recommend? I would like to start purchasing US equities but am looking for a service similar to 5i, but for US equities.

Thank you!

Q: Is there someplace on this site that shows me when my membership expires ?

Q: Under the recent answers about Shopify, LSPD and Kinaxis there is no mention of " authors of these answers, directors, partners of 5i Research have a financial or other interest in any of these at the time of answering the questions.".
What is the reason?

Q: I read with interest your "Stock Screener" list detailing shareholder yield. I have been unable to find any free screeners that give this yield number (tried Yahoo, Globe, TSX, and RBC which is my direct investing site. Do you know of any free sites that may give this number? … Publish if you think your answer may be useful. Thanks!

Q: My question is a general one on dividends. For example during these times companies are keeping the dividend and in some cases raising it. But most are stopping the DRIP. What is the purpose of this? Only reason I could think of is they don't want to give me stock at such cheap prices? What else am I missing?

Jimmy

Q: I understand the concept of selling a portion of your winning stocks when they go up such that their weighting becomes, for the sake of argument, let’s say around 10% of the overall portfolio. In the current situation we seem to have a slightly different scenario where some sectors (Financials and Industrials) have gone down while a company like CSU has been stable. However CSU’s weighting (and Tech in general) has gone up due to the decline of the other sectors. Would you still recommend reducing the weighting of the winners when the increase is mostly due to the decline of the others?
Thanks,
Jim

Q: My Virtual Brokers account still shows shares of Guestlogix (gxi:ca) and Newnote Financial (neu:ca). Both companies went out of business several years ago. Can I get anything for these, ie some bankrupsy settlement? Should they be removed and junked, or is there any benefit to do nothing and wait?

Q: Read your report on PHO. Curious about the rating. On your sidebar you have a rating of B+ but overall rating of B-. Why is the meaning of the difference between these 2 "ratings"?

Q: Hi There
Can you tell me of a website (other than Bloomberg) where I can find reliable Cash Flow information - preferably FCF. Alternatively, or as well, AFFO info. Thanks.

Q: Hello 5i team,
Thank you for your help today- what I’m hoping to get some perspective on is tactics one could do to grow a portfolio- what you’d think wise or stupid, please.
In TFSA, two holdings happen to be up: AQN by 35% and NPI by 21%. Everything else is in the minus by -30 to -35% due to the current situation as generally they’re ok businesses, like two banks, phone co, etc.
Tactically, would it be an idea to sell the two that are up, and buy a few which are quite down now, then in due course replace what was sold?
I was thinking of more banks like BNS or BMO, and PPL, CNQ,SU, and KEY.
The idea being that the gains over time would be more than the growth in price of the two being sold, thus netting an overalL growth in funds.

In RRSP, two are close to break even, just a couple hundred dollars each in the red, namely T and NA.
If sold, I was thinking of BIP, BPY, and maybe SU, CNQ, and BMO- fairly similar to the TFSA idea.

I like dividends, I know SU just reduced; I’ve not heard if these others have/plan to. I think I’m fine with a 3-5yr estimation of recovery period for these ‘down’ stocks, if you think that’s likely.

I’d appreciate your counsel on this, thanks very much!

Q: Hello,
I was about to question when I should make a significant buy in my kids’ TFSA’s, and should I wait until 2nd and 3rd quarter earnings are out which could substantially affect the market to the downside. Then I read your article: Unintended Investments consequences from Covid crisis. You seem to have answered that very well in that the Central banks of the world have a “put” on the floor of the world’s markets and the worlds’ governments have politically put cash in the hands of those who need it most somewhat enabling the economy.
So in other words, you would suggest to get a move on and start investing before the expensive market becomes more so?
Cheers,
Rick

Q: Exit strategy - with a rapid bounce in equity markets, there is increasing potential for draw down in equities. If things go south, what exit strategy would you recommend.

Q: I believe recently discussed a maneuver to exchange CAD to USD. Is that something I can do in a self directed I trade account?

It seems to me that if this is a dead cat bounce in the market and there is another test of lows that having USD would be a good hedge. What are your thoughts on the best currency to preserve capital?

Q: This is in response to an answer you gave on an earlier question today. As you may have gathered I am rather new to options. I wonder, first of all, whether you might be able to suggest a resource to understand the basics. I have been doing well but have stayed pretty close to the bit I do understand. Mostly covered calls. But, related to the question I asked earlier about the covered call on TD, to avoid capital gains, could I not buy back the call before expiration? I know this might cost me a bit of money. But, it would allow me to take the chance of trying to make some option premiums on some of the stocks I own, without the worry about capital gains and taxes. I am not familiar enough with this to know, though, whether it could be a useful strategy.
thanks