Investment Q&A

Q: PM, TCN,CWT.UN, WEQ...currently have loss. Are they hold & is average down a good option?

Q: What does sector rotation mean?

Q: Hi Peter & 5i: I am wondering about dividend reinvestment plans. Could you comment and maybe mention a couple of examples? Theoretically the company gets the money back that it would otherwise have paid out in dividends (at least to the extent of the DRIP participation rate), which it can then use to grow the business and, all going well, the results can be accretive to all shareholders and the accretion would be pleasantly leveraged for the DRIP participants. But suppose there is no progress being made on the growth front, or worse that the company isn’t really earning the dividend that it would otherwise have had to pay out in cash. Then it seems like all that is happening is a kind of steady dilution and potentially a dangerously growing snowball, because each new share that is issued comes with its own dividend rights stretching forward indefinitely. If the market intervenes by lowering the share price, then the rate at which the DRIP shares get issued increases because the dividends will buy more shares. Does this ever really get out of hand? It seems that there might be a significant difference in the DRIP impact on a company with a 3% yield versus one that slips above 10%. It would be different of course if the company was buying back its own shares opportunistically to offset the DRIP’s effects, but that would seem to negate the benefit of the company keeping the dividend cash in the first place. Are DRIPs generally a negative in the context of a company that might be a relatively higher risk investment? Thanks.

Q: How many stocks are required to own a diversified income portfolio of $125K and what weighting do you give for each stock? When should you sell to bring back the weighting down and what do you do with that profit, buy more stock for more income or buy more shares of the stocks that are down the most in the portfolio? Do you have a future plan to build an income portfolio, if yes, could you indicate a timeline? Thank you, Peter and Team. Your service and magazine are awesome tools.

Q: Hello,

I read your article in the National Post regarding sector rotations and would like to ask a question about it.

Out of the 20 stocks I own, 3 are energy, IPL,TOU,HAL.
Because of the rotation would 15% considered too much to hold?
The rest of my portfolio is 10% Communications, 15% Health, 25% Cyclical and 35% Technology.

Thank you.

Q: All the talking heads on BNN say sell your utility,telcos,banks and Reits-and buy what? If you are retired like me and don't mind volatility-they never < dividends during the worst financial crisis ever & telcos are planning to > dividends -eg. T why would you do that if you want mostly TSX exposure (pref. tax treat). I have some USD exposure in companies like J&J, MSFT (up nicely), MO, GE, KFT etc-held for over 4 yr.

Q: Hi Peter, "T" and "BCE" are getting hit again is there a particular reason for this and can this be an opportunity to add to existing positions as I hold both of these or can they fall further. Thanks, Nick

Q: Hi 5i. I have a very basic investing question: If I sell everything now, when should I buy everything back?

Q: Cnd Telecom
Boy, this Canadian market is filled with minefields! Mostly skirted by 5i. Congrats. Speaking of blow-ups. How about those telcos? Time to buy? Is Verizon for real?

Q: I was wondering why you do not include the P/E multiple in your model portfolio summary. As a value investor, I have always found P/E to be a useful filter.

Q: Hello, I would like your opinion on a macro economic situation. The "govt" keeps expounding the line that there is virtually no inflation and the central bankers (fed etc) can keep printing more money because of this. However, in your answer about G you mentioned that the cost of production keeps going up for the miners. All of us "commoners" know that everything that we have to buy is going up in price or being disguised with smaller packages etc...so my question is this: how do these two opposing situations of talk vs reality play out? As a small retail investor I am very concerned about where we are headed and what is going to happen to ones savings?
Thanks for your insights.

Q: Can you explain the signifigance of beta? What is the effect of a beta well above or well below 1.0? A negative beta?

Q: Regarding Ronald's post on the value of NOT using stop losses in IPL's quick drop and bounce case. The flip side to that argument is easily demonstrated by my position in Goldcorp. If I had used a stop loss as I normally do, I would not be sitting on thousands of dollars loss in this position. Buy and hold is a miserable solution when "good" stocks go bad, which they all too frequently seem to do. My normal habit of being willing to summarily dump losing stocks early with stop losses, has now been enlivened considerably.

Q: Hello,

I currently hold CML healthcare. When the buyout occurs which stock would you recommend to replace this?

susanna

Q: Hi Peter & 5i: You mentioned the potential for the flooding in the western prairies area to impact drilling operations on effected lands. I'm wondering more broadly about whether you have any thoughts on other businesses that may be impacted significantly. Unfortunately located REIT properties come to mind on the negative side but there must be other examples. I don't know whether there are "clean-up" oriented businesses that might actually may do well as a result of the disaster. Can you expand my thinking here with suggestions of any stocks that bear extra-careful watching while the waters recede? Thanks!

Q: Hi 5i If a good quality company pays a good dividend , say 4%
and as this market shows all companies can be pulled down in price will the dividend be affected negatively if the stock drops 15% but the companies fundamentals remain strong ?

Q: I notice that at this point you have no insurers in your model portfolio, is this likely to change when you feel that interest rates will continue their uptrend?

Q: Can you point me to some decent Canadian commodity stocks. I had TCK and POT awhile back but dumped them when they started to tumble.

Q: People keep saying that since the market has been going up so fast, it was time for a breather. However, the CDN market has not gone up much at all and yet it is getting hammered right along with the US market as if we also had been "frothy". Are there better values in parts of the Canadian market now, as compared to the US?

Q: The dividend stocks are getting hit hard including all the large cap blue chips. I think it's just a normal correction since they've had good run ups for a long time. Is the income dividend scenario over.