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Investment Q&A

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

Q: Hello, I was busy doing some research on some of my holdings, this weekend. It was interesting to find that a number of companies, which have shown huge growth, over a period of, let's say, past 2-5 years, are on the top of the recommended list, today with 5ireasearch and analyst community. If only these stocks could be identified at early stage, when they were undervalued and under the radar, investment returns would have multiplied several times, in today's terms and in future. A number of private equity groups and investment funds ( Mawer, Timbercreek, Pembroke, Pender, Fidelity, CI funds etc)(5iresearch included)initiated positions in some of these companies at the nascent stage and have reaped large returns over time. Some of these stocks which come to my minds are CSU,KXS,SYZ,PBH,NFI,CCL,SJ, BYD.un etc. In your view, are there any such "hidden gems" today which are under followed and appear cheap today but have huge growth potential, over next several years? Of course, there will a degree of risk associated with these names. Thanks for your valued insight.
Read Answer Asked by rajeev on May 16, 2016
Q: My dad has had 70% of his portfolio in bonds. He is satisfied with a 6% capital return per year, prefers companies with a 10y history, and rarely looks at his holdings. In Canada, he owns a fund plus AW, PZA, REI.un, BPY, CAR.un, HR.un, BNS, SLF, BCE, T and the etf ZPR. All are in the green. Last week, he bought a small amount of Concordia. He wants to buy two more "blood on the street" stocks that pay > 2% dividend, have little chance of going bankrupt, and that have a good chance of doubling over 7 years. what would you suggest? I'm thinking AutoCanada and Cameco. Thank you!
Read Answer Asked by Matt on May 16, 2016
Q: The price of OSB is rising quickly. Norbord stock price has already appreciated considerably in the past few months but I understand it may do very well if the product price remains at its current level. Would you consider it a buy at the current level? Would you consider Norbord a better investment at this time that WEF?
Read Answer Asked by Jim on May 16, 2016
Q: Hello, I have some stocks that I am planning to buy in the future. They are SJ, CSU, BYD.UN, SIS, NFI, KXS, RRX, PEY. Could you please rank these stocks from the safest to the riskiest? In your opinion, do you recommend these stocks for a long term hold? Also, which one in the list do you think has the most potential? Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Esther on May 16, 2016
Q: Hi,
I am new to investing and am building a diversified long term portfolio. Im looking for strong long term growth to eventually turn into TFSA dividend income. I have some canadian real estate exposure through REITS (using drip programs to help portfolio growth). I have some diversified US exposure through VFV and VGG. I would like to add more Canadian diversified exposure. Would you recommend picking individual stocks (maybe starting with Canadian banks and using their DRIPs as well) and branching out from there? Or would I be better off for total value growth with some low cost Canadian ETF? If you think the ETF, could you recommend a few please? If you think specific stocks could you recommend a few also. Finally, for specifics, which of the Canadian banks do you like the best?

Thanks 5i, Ill understand if this counts as 2 questions instead of 1.

Read Answer Asked by david on May 15, 2016
Q: Wanted to add something to Bryan's question about Concordia, relating to Cohodes.

1- Cohodes shorted OpenText during the financial crisis. The stock instead went up and shortly after, he was forced to close his hedge fund. OTC is up 410% since his short.
2- Cohodes is known for liking "a fight". He likes shorting because of the confrontation aspect.
3- Cohodes often has little facts, but succeeds at making retail investors second-guess themselves, at instilling doubt.
4- If you watch his appearances on BNN, you're likely helping his cause, because BNN will see a higher viewership and bring him back on.
5- Best to not comment about Cohodes' points of view, on any social media (stocktwits, stockhouse, twitter). That only makes him more popular.
Read Answer Asked by Matt on May 15, 2016
Q: My 22 yo son recently opened an RSP. I wish to invest in one stock in his RSP (limited $ at this time - his TFSA is in order). I believe that good companies seldom/never come on sale. Given the concept of capital preservation for RSPs, cannot use cap loss, very long time horizon, etc, I like the 3 companies identified, and am open to others. There is no need to shoot the lights out - slow and steady will win the race.

Can you see any difficulty with any of the 3 companies I have it narrowed down to, and is there one or two others I should consider (don't care for securities like SH in RSP).

Thanks in advance. Bob
Read Answer Asked by Bob on May 14, 2016
Q: Back in April you recommended SJ, KXS, OTC, and PBH to someone who was starting a TFSA , and all except for SJ have taken off...
I am trying to help a Senior who doesn't even own ONE stock .
I presume in his situation would you recommend the usual SLF, and BNS ?

Now that these stocks have already performed so well , should he wait for a summer pullback on these ?... or are there others that he should consider ?

Thanks so much
Read Answer Asked by Thomas on May 14, 2016
Q: My first question Re AGT was why the huge discrepancy between the Q1 EPS ($1.12) reported on the Financials and the $0.20 reported on the TMX research page for AGT.

It turns out that although it was not mentioned in the News Release in the Q1 MD&A they did in fact report “Adjusted EPS” of $0.20.

It looks like to calculate the “Adjusted EPS” they ignore any Unrealized FX effect.

There was a VERY LARGE Unprecedented $10.959m “Provision for tax” reported.

Do you have any thoughts / comments on this?
Read Answer Asked by Richard on May 14, 2016