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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: I am moving many of my fixed income investments from bond funds to preferred shares with a minimum guaranteed rate (yes I know the dividends are not guaranteed). I am trying to decide between TRP.PR.J and TRP.PR.K. Currently J yields 5.22% while K yields 4.73%. It appears J is the better choice. Do you agree? When would K be preferred if at all?
Read Answer Asked by Robert on April 10, 2018
Q: Peter and team

Thanks to member Walter, I have looked at a website that lists the U.S. preferred shares that trade on an American exchange. I realize that while U.S. stocks are not your focus are there any preferred shares that trade on an American exchange that you would recommend for an income investor? Are these p/s any more complicated than ones issued by Canadian companies ? I believe there are some companies on the TSX that have issued preferred shares that pay in U.S. $ and still are eligible for the Dividend Tax Credit. Are you familiar with any of these names?

Thanks

Paul
Read Answer Asked by paul on April 09, 2018
Q: I recently sold ENB.PR.V which trades in the TSX . It is a USD pref that pays its dividend in USD. My question: do you have a list of USD denominated prefs that trade on the TSX? ( not including ENB issues)
As an aside to any body else with these sort of holdings in a taxable account: Be mindful of the T-5s these things generate. It is easy to miss the USD part, and enter( or download as of recent) the data into your software as CAD$. I did that, and CRA was not happy.
Thanks as always for your interesting perspective.
Tim
Read Answer Asked by Tim on April 04, 2018
Q: Just a comment: a complete list of US preferreds, with daily updates, can be found at http://www.wsj.com/mdc/public/page/2_3024-Preferreds.html
Read Answer Asked by Kurt W on April 03, 2018
Q: A few questions if I may:

1. I gather that Preferreds are becoming increasingly rare and that they are concentrated in financial stocks. Is that also true in the U.S.?
2. Is there a site that lists or focuses on Canadian Preferred shares, or similar in the U.S.?
3. In a gradually increasing interest rate environment I assume it then follows that Preferred share prices would be under downward pressure?

Thank you!
Read Answer Asked by Kim on April 03, 2018
Q: Peter and team,

In the current environment do you prefer rate reset or perpetual preferreds or is it better to own both for diversification? Which specific issues do you like in each category (high quality )
( I tried to send a related question a couple of minutes ago. Just delete it if received as I believe it never made it.)

Thanks

Paul

Paul
Read Answer Asked by paul on April 03, 2018
Q: Gentlemen:
I notice some preferred shares have an option to convert to another issue and are also redeemable on the same day. Can you exercise the option or do they redeem them?
Thank you
Ken Beatty
Read Answer Asked by Ken on April 03, 2018
Q: I have held this stock for awhile, cost about equal to current price. Dividend suspended for reasons I could not follow after the price of the common dropped like a stone following Air Canada's withdrawl. I have no clue on how to do an objective analysis of this situation. I am not losing money, the potential gain is very good but the whole situation with the company is very murky. The easy out is to sell but if the company stabilizes itself or sells itself the potential gain is quite good. Given that the dividend on the preferred was stopped for what was described as legal reasons rather than cash flow reasons how does one assess the possibility of the dividend being restarted?
Read Answer Asked by Dennis on March 22, 2018
Q: BANK OF MONTREAL 1.81% NON CUM 5YR RT RST CL B PFD SER 25
BMO.PR.Q:
Thank you for your response to my question on the above. Would you kindly clarify: in August 2021, does the issuer BMO simply roll the investor over into something like this without the explicit written consent of the investor? If the issuer gives you back your cash, does the issuer give you back the face value it originally sold at (in this case C$25) or does the issuer simply give you the current market value if the then value is much lower? This was issued at C$25 and trades much lower.
Thank you for clarification. I am lost on these rate-reset animals. (Also , would your office support please reinstate the facility whereby you used to send me an email that my question is answered? Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Adam on March 09, 2018
Q: BANK OF MONTREAL 1.81% NON CUM 5YR RT RST CL B PFD SER 25
BMO.PR.Q
How do rate reset like THIS horrible thing work? How does value react to interest rate changes? Specifically, is the above security, which is down substantially, worth keeping now that it has already lost much value? OR are the funds better deployed elsewhere if one is conservative and looking for Canadian dollar income, preferably dividend?

Read Answer Asked by Adam on March 09, 2018
Q: Hi 5i,
I have some STB.DB.A debentures, which have popped up to around $25 above face value on the news of the takeover bid. How would you suggest I handle the position in the current circumstances? Ultimately I would like to put the proceeds into a convertible debenture from another issuer but I’d like to do as well as I can in disposing of the STB debentures first. Do you have any suggestions to consider as possible replacement debentures? I would prefer a maturity of 2022 or later. I would be using them primarily as a fixed income position and I view the possibility of a premium to purchase value at some point along the way as just a bonus. Thanks for considering.
Read Answer Asked by Lance on March 09, 2018
Q: Re Kim's preferred share question, TD Webbroker publishes a monthly analysis covering the following topics:
Market Commentary
and Strategy ................................................................................................
........................................... 2
Preferred Share
Recommendations ...............................................................................................
................................... 3 - 5
Preferred Share Classes
and Characteristics ...................................................................................
...................................... 6
Preferred Share
Table Notes ...................................................................................................
................................................ 7
Retractable Pref
erred Shares ..................................................................................................
................................................ 8
Rate-Reset Pref
erred Shares ...................................................................................................
....................................... 9 - 19
Floating-Rate-Reset
Preferred Shares ..........................................................................................
................................ 20 - 21
Perpetual Prefe
rred Shares ....................................................................................................
....................................... 22 - 25
Fixed-to-Float Pr
eferred Shares ...............................................................................................
............................................. 26
Floating Rate Pref
erred Shares ................................................................................................
............................................. 27
Split S
hares ..................................................................................................................
................................................. 28 - 29
U.S. Dollar U.S. Iss
ued Preferred
Shares ......................................................................................
............................... 30 - 36 (It's 36 pages)

Also http://www.prefletter.com/ publishes monthly recommended issues. A single copy is about $20
Read Answer Asked by Jeff on March 08, 2018
Q: I have been charged with buying $1MM in preferred shares so have to get it right! I ETFs are a good option but is there a site that lists available Canadian preferreds? Are they as relatively scarce as in America?

Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Kim on March 08, 2018