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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: Peter, here’s a challenge of sorts for you; I hope you can help. We are about 5 years from retirement. Our RRSPs and TFSAs are topped up, so we’re starting a non-registered account for excess savings. We have no need for income from the account (though, as you’ve said, it’s a good sign when a company initiates or grows a dividend). Can you suggest around 6 or 7 ‘lowish-risk’ stocks for long-term ownership? By this, I don’t mean we’re unduly concerned about volatility or short-to-medium term losses. Rather, we’d like stocks for which you think a loss of more than, say, 25% after 5 years is highly improbable. We are already topped up on banks, energy producers and REITs, but are probably a bit light on IT, Industrials and consumer stocks, amongst others. To add to your challenge, we already have fairly full positions in FSZ, SJ, WPK, ESL and DHX, all of which have done well for us, thanks to you! (ENB, DSG and BIN seem like possible candidates? But we’ll leave the advice to you.) Thanks for the TRULY excellent service and the unbiased guidance you are providing to us smaller individual investors. James
Read Answer Asked by James on February 10, 2015
Q: Hi team,

I'm working on diversifying my portfolio with a canadian media company. I have been looking at Corus Entertainment (CJR.B). I'm a bit concerned with their relatively high P/E ratio for the sector as well as the drop in their EPS form 1.7 to 0.6 recently. I like their 5% dividend payout, but wonder if this is sustainable given their reduced profitability.

Do you think corus's profitability will improve or continue to decline? Would you consider it a good option to buy at present or would another stock such as DHX media be a better purchase (even though teletubbies freak me out).

Thanks,
Jill
Read Answer Asked by Jill on February 10, 2015
Q: is this a good time to take a position in the above?

Thanks
M
Read Answer Asked by Marios on February 10, 2015
Q: Most of my money has been handed over to professionals who have more time to focus on investing and frankly have abetter track record than I do! However I'd like to keep 10-15% of my portfolio as a serious hobby (2 TFSAs and an unregistered account). Thanks to your wise words, I am getting more diversified and now have about 35 stocks (some of which will likely be sold when resources recover a bit). I'd like to add to Healthcare as this is under represented in my portfolio. I currently own some Knight (GUD) and Chartwell (CHS which is only sort of healthcare). Am I correct that of the Canadian healthcare choices, CCT would be your top choice even after the recent run up? Am I also correct that you would view my number of holdings as being at the upper limit for a diversified portfolio?

Thanks for your patient assistance!
Read Answer Asked by David on February 10, 2015
Q: The recent financial results for CAE SEEMED good but the stock dropped considerably,,, Is there something in the report or forward advice that is the cause.. Please give your take on the finances and growth prospects of this enterprise going forward and if this is an opportune time to invest; and perhaps what other company might be 'better' ( more sound, better growth prospects) than this. Also would you consider their business to have a fairly secure "moat"
Thanks
Read Answer Asked by lyle on February 10, 2015
Q: Given that the markets (except for Canada) are near all time highs and appear to be quite stretched, do you feel that it is wise to enter any long positions, even 5i's picks? My instinct tells me that I should be hedging my portfolio and search for short opportunities rather than go long? Any thoughts on this? Thanks so much.
Read Answer Asked by Kyle on February 10, 2015
Q: Your views on the recent sell-off...is Rx a buy, sell or hold at this time?...Thanks, Barrie
Read Answer Asked by Barrie on February 10, 2015
Q: Hi Peter,

Could I have your opinion on Bombardier Pref B ? I have about a 50 % loss if I sold today, don't mind the income but concerned about future down side. Would you sell and move on ?

Thx
Dave
Read Answer Asked by David on February 09, 2015
Q: Hello,

I have a question in two parts. I know it's hard (if not impossible) to predict where the price of oil (and as a result our dollar) is going in the short term. Having said that it seems that oil has been stabilized some what and a drop to 30$ (for any long time) in not likely. With that in mind:
1. Is it still worth it exchanging C$ to $US at current prices to buy US equities? and if yes which ones for a 2+ years hold on a non registered account.

2. Some energy stocks doubled since lows in December. Are there any that you would pick today (that even if oils goes down for a couple of months) will not go broke and have the best chance to multiply.

Thank you
M
Read Answer Asked by Marios on February 09, 2015
Q: We have a bond that matured and want to invest in another bond in the RIF which is mostly fixed income. Have XCB and 8 or 9 individual bonds in that account. In the context of which one of these is the safest (most likely to be around to pay the principal back at the end of the term), which one would you pick.
Precision Drilling 15-mar-2019 6%
Sirius XM 23-apr-2021 5.4%
Great Canadian Gaming 25-jul-2022 5.65%
Crombie REIT 30-sep-19 4.3%YTM
Read Answer Asked by Ian on February 09, 2015
Q: With their recent results in mind would you consider this a good entry point?do you see much potential for growth?
Read Answer Asked by Adam on February 06, 2015
Q: Hi 5i Read an article in the paper today. Russ Guirling of TansCanada said that trp is looking at getting into the oil by rail business in some form or another. I was wondering if you think trp might be interested the rail portion of Canexus (cus) Thx Gerry
Read Answer Asked by Gerry on February 05, 2015
Q: Hi Peter and Team:
Do you still NFI is a good buy in the low $13.00 range?
It has dropped in price somewhat recently
Read Answer Asked by Al on February 05, 2015
Q: Hi Peter any new taughts on wesport ?? I just saw somewhere that they have some kind of venture (25%) whit one of the biggest auto part manufacture in China is this true ??
Read Answer Asked by mike on February 05, 2015
Q: Hi guys I fairly new at this and don t know too much but want to invest!!! i really like the information you guys provide . I currently own ATH.BDI,ENB,HCG,MG,STN,WCP,and looking to add 5 more any suggestions thanks!!! Mike .
Read Answer Asked by mike on February 05, 2015
Q: Hi Peter,

Can you give me your opinion on their latest results? The results appear lackluster considering pulp prices were strong for the qtr, oil prices were down, Cdn Dollar weak....my expectations were higher.

Would you consider this a long term hold or is it time to sell.

Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Reinhold on February 05, 2015
Q: Hi Peter and Team,

I am in an MBA stock picking contest, which runs from Feb 2nd until the end of March. We are all given '100k' to 'invest' in US companies.

Are there any potential home runs (short or long) that you can think of (keeping in mind that it's just for fun)? Most players are trying to time the market with triple leverage funds, but I thought I'd check in to see if you have any other ideas that might be interesting.

Thanks for all you do. The XIT call options that I had previously asked about are now up over 200%, so thank you!

Mike
Read Answer Asked by Michael on February 05, 2015
Q: Hi, I have been thinking of asset allocation over my registered and non registered portfolios as a whole. Presently I hold a mix of about 80 per cent stocks and 20 percent fixed income. When one advises allocation of an individual stock not to exceed say 10 per cent, or a sector such as financials not to exceed 30 per cent of a portfolio, is this 10 or 30 per cent of the stock holdings only or is it 10 or 30 per cent of the entire portfolio including fixed income and cash?
Read Answer Asked by MANFRED on February 05, 2015
Q: Now that I have a Total Portfolio (TP) of all accounts or buckets, I wondering what else I can add to it for analysis/worthwhile information purposes. One will be yield to come up with the weighted yield for the TP. Now for the questions -
Would it be worthwhile to identify each equity holding as value or growth? If so, what would be the criteria for value, like high yield or/and "stable" company?
Would it be worthwhile to track the weighted beta for the TP as a measure of volatility?
Are there other measures that you might suggest, especially given the spread sheet is up and available. All these "measures" I would update every other quarter for so, eh?!
PS....the TP had a benefit... did show concentration in the finance sector. Again, thanks for the "education for practical works'........Tom
Read Answer Asked by Tom on February 04, 2015
Q: Hi 5i Team!

I'm looking for some information on Cipher Pharma. Specifically these metrics:

1. Net Margin %, 2. Return on assets %, 3. financial leverage, 4. Return on equity %, 5. P/E multiple.

Also if you can give me any other thoughts and information on the stock that you may see as relevant.

Thank you, Shane
Read Answer Asked by SHANE on February 03, 2015
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