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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: A few times I've seen replies to member questions about oil companies and their debt to cash flow metric (OXY and OVV ring a bell, and 5X and 3X respectively ring a bell too, if I remember correctly). Are you calculating this? I don't see it in security details in 5i or my broker's site (or on other finance sites). Is it a question of having to read the balance sheet and cash flow statement, and if so what are you comparing? "Total Debt" (rather than "Total Liabilities") to "Total Cash from Operations" for the year ? For OXY the data I get presented (source is Morningstar via online broker) are Cash from/Used by Operating Activities + Cash from/Used by Investing Activities + Cash from/Used by Financing Activities = Increase/Decrease in Cash, however, I'm guessing you just use the first number, which for 2019 is 7.3 billion (so 38.6 debt / 7.3 total cash from operations = 5X)...is that correct? or do you get the ratio from somewhere else? Thanks
Read Answer Asked on March 13, 2020
Q: Hi folks,looking longer term, Whitecap resources wcp/t had fairly decent Q results with Paying down $100M in debt,lowered payout ratio to 72,and there has been lots of recent insider buying at higher levels. Stock currently crushed to 1.30sh level....aside from problems/negativity of world/wti oil....does Whitecap not seem like a reasonable buy here??? thanks as always, jb
Read Answer Asked by John on March 13, 2020
Q: These companies are trading at close to 10% yield. The share price is back to where they were ten years ago and the dividends have since doubled. Are these companies not the buy of a generation right now? In my life I will likely never see these valuations again. Or I missing something huge??
Read Answer Asked by Joel on March 13, 2020
Q: Oil analysts on BNN have said the producers with good hedges on will do the best through this price war and corona virus impact. What large, mid and small cap producers hedged out for several months this year or further? Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Gordon on March 13, 2020
Q: I wonder whether you could tell me what you mean when you use the phrase “do not need to be owned now.” I have both VET and WCP. WCP, at least was in the green for me until this sell off started, and higher fairly recently. Both were recently described as OK, albeit within a riskier sector.

I might not “need” to own them, but I do. Selling now would lock in a massive loss, percentage wise, and provide little capital to redeploy.

I’m not asking that you advise me to sell or hold, but in such circumstances, were it you, would you take the loss (non taxable account) and buy a tiny amount of shares in something more stable, or would you do nothing except turn off the TV, stop reading questions like this, and come back in a few months?
Read Answer Asked by Danny on March 12, 2020
Q: Following up on my hedging question, any thoughts on which companies Nuttall is referring to in this excerpt from his newsletter? Thx


what were we doing yesterday? We sold our one US name and bought a low-cost oilsands producer whose stock was down by 50% (the Fund now has 100% Canadian content…Canadian producers at least benefit from a $0.73 loonie when they sell their oil in US dollars but have operating costs in $CDN). We added to another oilsand name that is 55% hedged this year at $59WTI (with swaps) as the stock collapsed by 56%. We also went through the structure of the hedge books of our positions and trimmed exposure to any name that may fall into trouble if the price rout lasts for longer than 6 months. Now is not the time to take on extreme risk. Our goal is to be in companies that can weather this storm as best as possible to allow us to be fully exposed to the sector for the inevitable turn. All it will take is one headline about a Saudi/Russia meeting and energy stocks could easily gap up by 20%+ in a day…if you’re not positioned for that event human psychology will prevent you from chasing the rally hoping for a pullback that may never come.
Read Answer Asked by Patrick on March 12, 2020
Q: Peter and team
I have held ZEO outside of my balanced portfolio for several years now. As of today it has lost half of what I paid.
Even though it is compromised of the bigger players I am still worried about the solvency of some of the companies. Are there any in this ETF that cause you concern and do you feel this is safe "hold" for the next few years while awaiting recovery.
Thanks
Phil
Read Answer Asked by Phil on March 11, 2020
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