Investment Q&A

Q: After environmental calamities in California and Texas I often think about the financial risk that infrastructure projects have from climate change. In California this seems to be a perennial risk that will return and is predictable, but Texas' cold snap was a good warning that they can happen anywhere.
I also seem to recall that utilities had to swallow some poorly organized derivative risk during the 2008 financial crisis.
Finally: the Biden government appears quite aggressive with its intention to eliminate all GHG related power production.
My question is: for a business that operates with high leverage and large scale projects that are slow to change and long to pay off, and high sensitivity to climatic shock, are these risks reasonably accounted for in their current pricing; is diversification a suitable means of diluting risk (across the sector), and finally are there more US or international choices such as ETFs that you would recommend over a Canadian centric etf (appreciating that the Canadian companies are somewhat international)?

thank you,
Peter

Q: On Mar 29th you answered Lindsey’s question
“Why are there companies in the model portfolios that are not rated? If you are recommending them why wouldn't you rate them? “
with
"Some other companies have been added for better sector and market cap diversification within the portfolios.”

This explains why they were added but not why 5i doesn’t rate them. Assuming that you have done some due diligence in making your choice to add these companies to the portfolio why not add those companies to your list of rated stocks?

5i prides itself on unbiased research. Besides the work that is done when selecting a stock for a portfolio, what else is involved in rating a stock?

Q: If one uses Computershare to direct register their securities, how does Computershare make money? Tx.

Q: Buy & Sell are specific recommendations. Hold is confusing? I’ve heard that analysts don’t want to issue sell recommendations for various reasons and that hold means sell. The question I would like answered is;
Why would you hold a stock you would not buy?
I have started a thread in the brokerages and research section of the forums if anyone wants to comment.

Q: In your response to Chris on PE, could you add forward ratios under the "Valuation Ratios" and "Price To Comparisons" categories, where it makes sense of course?

If we used NVDA as an example, the PE ratio shows 76 while it looks like Fwd FY1 is 48 and FY2 is 43, roughly.

It would also be nice to see any sector/industry ratios or any other comparison numbers.

Thx

Q: Could you please explain what it means when you say a company is priced at
"X" x earnings? For instance, in answering Ben's question this morning about TECK.B, you stated that it is priced at 7 x earnings, but on the TMX website it says that it has EPS of -1.61 and a P/E of -14.70.

Q: To whom it may concern.
I mostly hold stocks. My rules are as follows:
Rule 1) buy the best of the best stocks - never compromise.
Rule 2) always think of holding stocks forever.
Rule 3) if stocks trend down - turn off iPad - STOP looking hour to hour day to day. Do anything else that puts you in a positive mood.
Rule 4) stuff happens - don’t panic because it’s just noise. See rule 6 below.
Rule 5) always think of rule 1.
Rule 6) has my original thesis changed because I spent many hours / days of researching and following the stock. If it didn’t change shut off the computer.
Clayton

Q: I noticed on my broker's platform, that there is a borrowing fee is up to 5% for this security. The URB.A doea not have any borowing cost. Just wondering if that is because the majority of voting shares are tightly held by insiders. For now the Voting are not trading at a significant premium to the Non Voting. My question is, where can I find the public info about the current short interest on TSX listed shares?
Thank you

Q: Could you help me understand how dividends works ?
For exemple, I bought GSY when the dividend was 7,4%. I see that if I add new shares today, the dividend will be 2,20%. How will the dividend be calculated for the next dividend payment if I do buy new shares ?
If I don't buy new shares, will the dividend payment on my existing shares be 2,20% ?
Or to put it differently, do I just multiply the present dividend (0,66$) by my number of shares ?

Gratefully,
Jacques IDS

Q: There are times when I wonder about continuous disclosure rules and adherence to them. At the open on Friday, CP traded down sharply on much higher than average volumes. Over the weekend a major announcement. KSU did not trade up much on price during Friday but experienced higher than average trading volumes. Should a retail investor care or is their an issue here? Do the regulators watch this type of activity surrounding a major announcement?

Q: Hi 5i team.

Is there an efficient way to search for ETFs that represent certain specific groups of Co's or overall sector? For example, Telco CAD/US or combo?

Thanks for your help.

Q: Hello Team
Now that Superior has the ability to be more aggressive in their U.S. acquisitions, do you foresee them listing on a U.S. exchange? Is there a material advantage in them doing that?
Thank You
Clarence.

Q: Good day gentlemen.
Your thoughts on Scotia's new notes.
Thanks, Peter

Q: Can you suggest a few Canadian Companies that is dual listed inCanada and the US that pays its dividends in US currency. I have AEM, TFII, CSU, BAM and MG journaled over to a US account. I am looking at AQN, N, and TRI.

Looking mainly for income.

Thanks!

Q: In your answer to David, you state that WELL had a positive EBITDA, yet when I bring up the profile, the EBITDA MARGIN shows negative -8%. Is the EBITDA reference in the answer to David different from EBITDA MARGIN % ? 5i refers to EBITDA a lot in your answers and I notice BNN guests do also. I notice that, with the exception of AC (Air Canada), all the stocks in the BE PORTFOLIO have positive EBITDA MARGINS. In contrast, some of the US stocks everybody keeps asking you about have a negative EBITDA MARGIN: AFRM, CRWD, U, and PLTR is a whopping -115%. So when you warn this humble subscriber that a stock is risky, how useful is it to look up the EBITDA MARGIN? For example, how should I interpret XBC having an EBITDA MARGIN at +1.8%, or DFLY at -199.5%

Q: Can you provide more guidance on how to view debt? You appear concerned about EFX debt although debt to equity is only 0.32 and total debt is only about 2 X cash flow. OTEX on the other hand has debt/equity of 0.97 and debt/cash flow of about 4.
Thanks for your guidance.

Q: Can you explain simply how consensus estimates for quarter results are arrived at.
CSIQ with predicted loss of .55 had earnings of .11
Thank you for your thoughtful analysis
Peter

Q: i own a small cap stock that habitually sees a trade of 100 or 200 shares in the last hour of trading to bring the closing price down to less than its daily high. If I traded like that I am certain I would be investigated and possibly even demarketed by TD brokers. Why is it that when a firm like Goldman does that (as in my particular stock), its OK? Is there one rule for retail investors and another rule for institutional brokers? Same goes for those houses that trade to walk the price down so they can trade a block. Is that not stock price manipulation?

Q: Good morning. Happy St Patrick’s day to everyone
If I wanted to find stocks in the semiconductor sector thru 5 I is there an area to go to - also if we were looking for value stocks vs growth stocks - can I somehow do a search request in the ask a question area by using the word growth etc

Thank you for all you do - always enjoy my time on your site.

Q: Are you still reporting on companies that have increased dividends? If so, please remind where we can find this information.