Investment Q&A

Q: Thanks for your suggestions. To my earlier query; and you can ignore it if you wish.
At a generic level and in a later inning bull market such as it may be now; would you be comfortable with a leveraged investment strategy considering one has done well in the earlier innings. Or would you favour shutting down and bring your closer earlier in the game i.e. get defensive.
If you thought it was okay to leverage your earlier innings gains, would you suggest investing in growth stocks looking for home runs or load the bases one by one? Too much of baseball analogy, but I always look for Peter's comments be it in print or TV or in this forum.
Thanks.

Q: Hi Peter and Team!!! Since infrastructure is the politial darling,and it seems that we are gearing up for alot of it...what stock would potentially benefit from this and would you consider it a buy now. Many thanks as always, Tamara

Q: I have held Agrium for several years and intend to keep it on a long-term basis. It has been slipping recently; so, I am considering adding more. Your thoughts please. Thank you.

Q: For info via seeking alpha:
Uranium names are showing notable strength today following yesterday's ruling in Japan that will allow the Sendai nuclear plant to reopen, which would be the first plant to be reopened since the Fukushima disaster: CCJ +6.8%, DNN +5.6%, LEU +10.3%, URRE +4.5%, UEC +5%, URZ +2.6%, URG +1%, UUUU +1.7%.
The news is positive for the nuclear industry to the extent that authorities in Japan have not given up on the energy source despite Fukushima.
A MarketWatch article paints a bright picture of the nuclear industry, with uranium prices rising ~35% since last summer and improving public opinion; "China and India believe that the upside from the clean energy from nuclear far outweighs the downside risks of sticking to dirty coal,” says GoldStockTrades.com editorJeb Handwerger.
Last week, CCJ signed a deal with India to provide 7.1M lbs. of uranium concentrate over the next five years.
Publish only if you think it is legal

Q: I am lacking a bit in consumer staples/discretionary stocks in my portfolio. Can you recommend a mix that are reasonably valued and have a good outlook? Dirtt environmental is really looking good to me but I feel as if I would be chasing at this point.
Keep up the great job guys.

Q: For a portfolio that is getting larger, you have mentioned increasing positions in large-cap names to provide some stability. What are your favourite names in this space? Thanks, Janet

Q: Hi there,

I worked in the government for 15 years and I am 41 years old. I am eligible to get a transfer value for my service which would be roughly 250k within RRSP limits and 250K outside RRSP limits (or) I can collect an indexed pension pension of approx $2600 (todays value) at age 60. I did the calculation and I find that if I make about 7% I am better off than the pension plan taking the transfer value..Please give your opinion on this. Is this doable? If I do end up taking the transfer value can you suggest how I should invest it? I have a period of 20 years before I can withdraw from it. Would it be appropriate if I invest a portion of it by mirroring your model and divident portfolio? What should I do for international allocation? US allocation? Are there some investments which I can make which are not very market dependant? This is very important for me and I value your opinions. I realise this is more than one question so fell free to use more than one question credit as appropriate to respond. Thanks very much.

Q: What do you think of CP's answer regarding how they calculate their earnings?

http://business.financialpost.com/news/transportation/canadian-pacific-railway-executives-off-guard-by-bs-comment-in-conference-call

And on a related note, was there anything in CNR's (Canadian National Railway) earnings to cause concern? Management reaffirmed forward guidance and it looks "cheaper" now, on a forward p/e basis, than it has in a long while.

Thanks,

John

Q: Should I prefer LGT.A or LGT.B ?

Q: BAM is down today. what is your opinion of the company and if you like it, is this a good entry point?

Q: I have just read that 7 minutes after the market close, 250,000 shares of ZEN were crossed. Is trading of these shares legal after the market is closed? Thanks

Q: Thank-you for your excellent article on preferred shares providing much needed perspective on a very complex and misunderstood asset class. The comment below however could be unintentionally misleading. Other than a default situation (which can occur in any asset class), an investors capital would never fall to essentially zero. While there could be a decrease in value of these securities in certain market environments (like we are in now) there will always be an open market for them and they can be sold relatively easily to raise capital. Thanks.

"In other words, the investor could deal with the invested capital declining to essentially zero, as long as the income is maintained to meet whatever the cash flow needs are. Preferred shares can make a lot of sense when you need cash flow, but do not need the capital."

Q: Hi 5i,

What do you guys think about the recent financing of bam.a? This is a stock I have been looking to buy for a while. I am looking to perhaps sell home capital and replacing it with brookfield. I am a little cautious about valuation however, all the great stocks are always expensive.
Thanks for the great job, and keep doing those blogs!!

Q: Could you please sequence the below stocks taking into account Macro factors, sector, industry and most important company specific factors.
Using roughly the following criteria:
1 capital preservation
2 Dividend yield and growth prospects
3 quality of management
4 recession resistant ( some )

CHR.UN
DRG.UN
CAR.UN
LW.UN
MBK.UN
AW.UN
BEP.UN
CHE.UN
ECI.UN
ENB.UN
PZA
WIR.UN
ALA.UN
I own some of the above but adding would not be an overweigh issue. I am overweight energy.
Comments would also be appreciated
thanks
Yossi

Q: Peter,
Carmanah want to issue 40% of the existing float, will ask shareholder approval (done deal, of course...) get insiders to buy 500000 shares that (i think) will be sold immediately to the brokers as kindle for shorts. I called the CFO who was "surprised" by my call. This deal I do not like, but as usual I could be very wrong or not. This is a company that I have followed for 13 years and had his share of hiccups but riding the solar wave has given the new CFO wings to call Canacord, Comark (upgraded the stock to to pick 03/31..) and Salman (upgraded the stock from 3.15 to 4.6 0n march 5th..)as underwriters.
Are we facing down the road the days of reckoning or is this regular business deal.
Your experienced judgement will be appreciated.

Q: Is this still going to be sold?

Q: I own WSP/AW.UN/HNL/CGX/STN/BDI/CRW/IFP. Are all these stocks considered as services stocks? Since I own so little of each I would like to sell some and increase the holding in the ones that I should keep. Which ones should I sell and which ones should I keep?

Thanks
Dolores

Q: What two relatively safe stocks would be good addition to the following list of stocks: BAC, BEP.UN, MFC, ET, T.

Thank you.
Milan

Q: With oil prices stabilizing or increasing, what are the implications of the reduction in the high fuel margin tailwind that resulted from falling fuel prices? Is recent weakness just profit taking or is this part of the reaction to high multiples in the consumer staples sector. I have reduced my position from 28% to 17% over the last few months. Would you recommend reducing some more? To what level?

THanks,
Hans

Q: What % range would you consider acceptable ( min to max ) for financial stocks for a middle aged dividend investor with 7 years to work and a goal of building up a portfolio that will pay dividend income upon retirement. I invest in all sectors with ETFs, individual stocks and a small number of mutual funds ( Chow etc ). My portfolio includes small mid cap and large cap, both in Canada and worldwide. I find even non industry specific ETFs are on average 20% in financial stocks. Tough to keep under 20% when you start buying PWF, BMO, BNS, SLF etc.

Many thanks

Paul