skip to content
  1. Home
  2. >
  3. Investment Q&A
You can view 3 more answers this month. Sign up for a free trial for unlimited access.

Investment Q&A

Not investment advice or solicitation to buy/sell securities. Do your own due diligence and/or consult an advisor.

Q: In a recent answer to a question on syz, esl and csu you said
" SYZ and ESL have historically always had high multiples. Keep in mind also that both have large cash balances which if excluded would lower earnings valuations ".
Can you clarify how large cash balances affect earnings multiples?
How would this be calculated for example with SYZ? ie how much would their current cash balance lower their P/E?

Thanks, as always, for a great service.

Rob
Read Answer Asked by Robert on August 22, 2016
Q: You often refer to a stock as expensive or as cheap or inexpensive. Can you explain what you mean by that. For example are KXS and SIS cheap or expensive? What about BOS at its current price?
Read Answer Asked by David on August 22, 2016
Q: Just an aded information regarding the otc market.
Quotes are no longer available neither level 2. Buying is throwing a dart in a tunnel at night.
Your broker may not allow you to trade, and if it does it will only give you (eventually) the bid/ask spread at the time of the quote.
Then there is the problem of selling, some trades are extremly thin.
If you have a portfolio manager, he may be able to acess OTC. Otherwise good luck.
Read Answer Asked by claude on August 19, 2016
Q: As hard as I try, I can't find a website that shows daily price changed multiplied by shares outstanding. I find this curious as it would seem to be the metric that one should care most about. Then you could see how much market cap was created and destroyed on any given trading day.
Any thoughts?
I found this one which gives daily volume traded times share price, so we can see the daily $ traded.

http://www.barchart.com/stocks/pricevol.php
Read Answer Asked by Bill on August 17, 2016
Q: In concurring with Clarence's comments and observations around CXR.

This includes that management must have integrity and be honest I have learned.

To that point many CEO's, and high level management got to the position they are in due to their sales skills to the board of directors, the public and shareholders and thus meeting, talking with them and listening to them can often only make an investor vulnerable to their sales pitch of saying all is well, do not worry. I have learned that many big investors never talk to the management for this very reason. They do not want to get sucked in so they remove that possibility.

Reading the annual and 1/4'trly reports including the address and final notes can usually reveal the truth as the reports are reviewed by the company's lawyers and they do not want a law suit once they are published.

I understand that earnings and other #'s can me manipulated but over time this can be detected by looking at the other #'s. FCF, Free Cashflow cannot be manipulated as a company either has cash or it does not. They can lie about is but that would not serve them very long or well. Growing FCF year over year over year is one good thing to look for for sound well managed companies.

Also how the CEO is compensated which was over-looked by many in the case of VRX. Are they in for themselves or the long-term business and shareholders?

Read Answer Asked by Stan (1) on August 16, 2016
Q: Trying to think of away to avoid two mistake made recently, or at least increase odds of avoiding in future.

PHM purchased and then up over 100% in few weeks/months, then down to minus 30%-50% range few weeks/months later.

CXR purchased and then up over 70% in few weeks, then down to minus 30%-50% range in a few more months.

Gross losses manageable as portfolio weighting was responsible.

PHM I guess fundamentals did not justify the increase and was popular stock at time is best thought I can think of and maybe a soft sell signal?

CXR seemed to go up on short covering, then down dramatically, then slightly back up on takeover rumours. No idea what to have done differently on this one. Feel like the CEO and CFO just dishonest on it.

Ideas? Lessons?
Read Answer Asked by John on August 12, 2016
Q: Hi Gang, I have a good number of shares of some blue chip dividend payers such as BCE and RY and wanted to know about some insurance with buying puts. When these correct I feel some pain but do not want to sell as to avoid capital gains plus they pay a nice dividend, just want to sleep better and want to smooth out the volatility, also was thinking of doing the same thing with some index ETF's , is there an essay or an explanation on your web site.

Thanks and keep up the great work.
Anthony
Read Answer Asked by Anthony on August 11, 2016
Looking for more? Sign up for a FREE 14 day trial! No credit card required

We invite you to sign up for a 14 day free trial of 5i Research!
Experience all the benefits and tools we have to offer; stock research, model portfolios, Q&A with our experts, and so much more. Join a community of like-minded investors today!