Investment Q&A

Q: some time ago I asked a second question about Canadian companies that pay dividends in USD(eg bar its etc). my broker Scotia McLeod will only credit these dividends in CAD. despite the fact that I asked them to hold relevant companies in the USD side of my cash account. my second question was does 5i or any of its members have the name of a broker that will deposit the dividends always in USD. thanks for your help Richard

Q: This question my be too "personal", so if you choose not to answer I would understand. I find your responses to questions to be quite expedient, especially around earnings season, and exceptionally informative. I'm wondering how large your staff is?

Q: What is the gap between selling and buying back a Canadian company with a loss please?

Q: Hi Ryan,

Just read a recap of your appearance on BNN today. How come you do not own any of your past or current top picks?

Q: Commentators often talk about a company’s yield in reference to its “dividend”. Many companies have “yield” to which the dividend tax credit does not apply. Is there a website out there that lists the TSX companies that have dividends that attract the credit? Thank you. Bill

Q: I've been looking at your Key Ratios for company profiles and I see a lot of numbers but how can I tell whether these numbers are good or bad. For example Liquidity ratio, Total Debt to Equity is 1.00 good or bad. Leverage ratio of 5 , good or bad. Same goes for Price To Comparisons, Efficiency Ratio, Profitability Ratio etc.
Could you write a Blog on this?

Q: Hi

My question is on warrants and options.

Is there a web site that tracks when warrants and options are exercised?

I recently called a company asking if the warrants were exercised, but they did not reply. I know in the next quarterly report I will see if they were exercised but I would like to know sooner than later.

Gilles

Q: A recent article in The Economist ("Why everybody is concerned about corporate-bond liquidity - Investors expect to find sellers at all times, but dealers lack capacity to buy") predicted that the corporate bond market may be headed for trouble and a lot of BBB rated bonds may become junk. I own VSC ETF which contains about 33% BBB.
Looking at the daily VSC quotes I notice that "bid lots" have been vastly outnumbered by "ask lots" every time I have checked for the last few weeks. Is this a sign that the prices of corporate bonds (and corporate bond ETFs) are due for a drop?

Q: Hello Team,
I am overweight in technology growth names and have been caught in this “sector rotation” from growth to value. My question is do I now hold steady and ride out the storm, or trim back my growth holdings and switch to value? I am a buy and hold investor typically and believe the names I am invested in are best in class in what they do, and believe the way the world is going that technology will continue to advance and should be where the biggest growth is now and into the foreseeable future. So, with the names listed do I buy more , hold, or sell?Thanks for your input on the matter.

Q: Just finished reading Peters article in the latest edition of Canadian Money about High yield dividend payers. Question about payout ratios. Its confusing.
Example; In Morningstar for 2018 the payout ratio was quoted at 134%(unsustainable)
Using operating cash flow the calculation is 230M/388M = 60%(sustainable)
Using free cash flow the calculation is 230M/322M= 71%(probably sustainable)
Peter you have said the calculations should use either free or operating cash flow for the calculations of payout ratio.
I contacted Morningstar asking about their calculation and they said they use what the company sends them.
So which is right when trying to figure out whether the payout ratio is too high?
There are multiple other examples, Enbridge to name one.
Stated payout ratio 282%, operating. cash flow calc, 3844/10502=37%
Free cash flow 3844/3156 = 121%. Quite a variance. I'm confused.
WHICH CALCULATION IS THE BEST ONE TO USE TO HELP DETERMINE SUSTAINABILITY?

Q: According to Portfolio Analytics (and certainly by any other measure as well!) I am over allocated to Apple. I really think their products remain sound (look at new AirPods Pro) and they seem to keep a considerable amount of cash on hand. I first bought at the time of the Brexit vote in 2016 at just under $93 USD per share and have been handsomely rewarded to date. Am I foolish not to rebalance some of the gains? I am thinking that if they have a big miss such as a larger hardware issue they have a lot of means to fix it and move on. Are they well positioned for 5G? Any thoughts appreciated.

thanks,
Marilou

Q: The Spectrum of Wealth: Very insightful; worth a read:

https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/the-spectrum-of-wealth/

Q: There were a couple of questions recently about dividends/distributions being 'return of capital' (ROC) which made me wonder how a company raises money to pay ROC? Does it sell shares ahead of the dividend date?

Q: In years past, I attended 3 of Larry Berman's travelling roadshows held in major cities across Canada. I like him and find him very personable. Also, he's a polished seminar presenter. However, what I took away from each of those events was "impending recession" and "lower for longer". Eventually I stopped attending. Since then, when a local roadshow would be planned, I'd be e-mailed (maybe 2x). This past month, I was e-mail 'bombed' with no fewer than eight (8) reminder emails from Larry (over a two week period) inviting me to register for his seminar. What do you think that might mean ;-)

Q: On BNN the other day a portfolio manager said November is the second best month for Stock Markets and December the best month while September and October are the worst months. Is this so ? November is starting off as if this is correct Dow up 301 points on November 1st 2019 alone. Sell in May and go away has not been the case has it ? Your thoughts . RAK

Q: about the recent Update about companies and portfolio....it hit the mark...clear and informative, aka well written executive summary ...appreciated...Tom.

Q: Is there a free site for determining company credit ratings?
Is ENB really rated BBB? Isn't that one step from junk status?

Q: Hi Guys

I came across this good review (printed below) of the book Railroader by Howard Green. The book outlines Hunter Harrison and what made him, and makes, an outstanding CEO. Wondering looking at current CDN companies which stand out as being lead by outstanding, visionary, numbers driven CEOs.

"Book - Railroader

Every so often there is a book that gets circulated around our office that sparks both conversation and action. Railroader, written by Howard Green, recently ignited this spark. You may recognize Howard Green as the founding anchor at Canada’s Business News Network (BNN). Green chronicles the life of Hunter Harrison, the brash railroad expert who grew up on a railway spending five decades in the industry and rose from a labourer to the CEO of multiple railroad companies. Canadians specifically might remember Harrison as he has his fingerprints all over historic Canadian institutions. He ran and turned around both Canadian National (CN) and Canadian Pacific (CP) (as well as Illinois Central and a brief tenure as CEO of CSX before his death in 2017). Howard does a great job providing in-depth and genuine insight into the life and, more crucially, the thought process behind Harrison’s decisions.

The book was engaging from our point of view because we have met with hundreds, if not thousands, of management teams and we’re always on the lookout for what Hunter Harrison embodied. How was Harrison able to rise from lowly labourer to successful CEO multiple times over? Harrison knew more about railroads than anyone else. He grew up on a railroad and did every job along the way. Harrison was described as having an “encyclopedic knowledge of the industry” and used it to transform the businesses he led. There are instances in the book that describe his ability to identify a problem just by the smell. In other words, he had an edge.

Harrison was also a “numbers guy.” He measured everything that could be measured. He was the first to implement computers in the day to day operation of a railroad and went on to pioneer Precision Scheduled Railroading, now an industry standard. When Harrison would look at the railroad’s daily printouts, the numbers would jump off the page and he could see what the issues were. As Green describes, “Soon he was scrutinizing the return on assets, capital spending, depreciation, cash flow and revenue. He also wanted all of the regions on the railroad to be cognizant of these numbers.” The combination of knowledge, measurement, and execution would show up in the railroad’s operating ratio, the industry standard in evaluating performance, which Harrison would improve far beyond what industry experts thought possible, at all of the railroads he led. He knew what trains were capable of when everyone
else couldn't even imagine their potential. The ability to transform a commodity business to a service-based business that customers are willing to pay a premium for is truly remarkable.

Stuart

Q: I recently attended a fall 2019 session of Larry Berman Live. His prediction was for a recession in 2020 or 2021 and he recommended that investors adjust their portfolios accordingly. I am interested in 5i's thoughts about an upcoming recession and whether 5i members should become more defensive with their portfolios.

Q: am looking to invest $5000 (U.S.) in each of these stocks. However I am concerned about the daily volume for Elbit. Would you shy away from a stock just because this?
Ed in Montreal